With some 35 partners and 30 stakeholders attending, the fifth meeting of the Woody Weeds project, which was held from 22 to 29 January 2018 in Moshi, at the foot of Kilimanjaro Mountain, was the largest since the project started in 2015. It was a milestone event as it brought together the PhD and MSc students from the first project phase with those of the second one. A substantial part of the meeting was dedicated to knowledge transfer between the student cohorts.

Participants in the fifth Woody Weeds project meeting

One session included highly interesting presentations from external experts working on a variety of topics relevant to the Woody Weeds project, such as the revision of the Tanzanian Forest Policy (Prof A.B. Temu, Capacity Development Resources; Forestry, Agroforestry and Environment), land tenure security and sustainable land management (Dr Michael Odhiambo, Reconcile), challenges to livestock management in Tanzania (Dr Angello Mwilawa, Tanzanian Livestock Research Institute), livelihood opportunities from fast growing exotic and native tree species (Dr Alice Muchugi, ICRAF), and the national assessment of invasive species management in South Africa (Prof Brian van Wilgen, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa). The meeting also included a field trip to villages nearby Moshi, during which a traditional court hearing was organized with local stakeholders to discuss perceptions and questions regarding the recent invasion of Prosopis juliflora in the Kilimanjaro region.

The stimulating workshop in Moshi has helped the whole project team to pave the way towards the identification of promising invasive species management options in a joint process with stakeholders, and to select some for test implementation.