21 January 2022

Do you remember the spectacular eradication of Carpobrotus from the sea cliffs in Santo Stefano and Ventotene? The removal of this invasive alien plant species, which is native to South Africa and was introduced as ornamental in the last century, was a nice example of collaboration between researchers from Sapienza University of Rome, experts from Nemo srl, the personnel of the Reserve and, last but not least, the staff of Geosolution Garfagnana srl, who worked with ropes on the cliffs (here you can find some pictures).

Some weeks ago, Michele Giunti from Nemo and experts from Geosolutions Garfagnana returned to the islands to monitor the results of that intervention. Both in Ventotene and in Santo Stefano, they found very few individuals of Carpobotus regrown from residuals of the rooting system (which obviously were eradicated). In Santo Stefano the team examined the upper and medium parts of the sea cliff close to the cemetery, where Carpobrotus stands were present with cover close to 100% in most cases. The experts could not descend for the risk of rockfalls, but apparently no Carpobrotus plants occur at the base of the cliff. The native flora is already colonizing the cleaned areas and this process will be the object of future monitoring. Now, let’s enjoy this excellent result!