From October 4-12, 2010 Dr. Emilie Ens travelled to South Arica to attend an invite only International workshop at the University of Stellenbosch titled: Human‐mediated introductions of Australian Acacia species: a global experiment in biogeography, and develop potential collaborations with other non-governmental and governmental agencies in relation to socio-environmental projects that aim to reduce Indigenous disadvantage and poverty.

 

The workshop was based around the construction of a special journal issue of Diversity and Distributions, which has an ERA rank A. The issue will include multidisciplinary papers relating to Invasive Acacias around the world including social, economic, political and ecological impacts and management strategies. Dr. Ens contributed substantially to one of the papers which will be published mid 2011. During the workshop she was able to substantially expand her network of potential collaborators and discussed the possibility of working at the University of Stellenbosch in the future.

 

Dr. Ens also met with Louis Leibenberg, the creator of the CyberTracker software which she will draw on heavily in her research with indigenous Rangers in northern Australia. They also discussed the potential for collaborative work and the current strengths and weaknesses of the software.

 

Additionally Dr. Ens visited some of South Africa’s Working for Water on-ground projects. This initiative was designed to help alleviate poverty in South Africa while also making environmental conservation gains by removing Invasive trees from rivers and creeks to increase water flows. Dr. Ens is writing a paper that compares this project to socio-environmental initiatives aiming to reduce poverty in Indigenous Australia.