Across parts of the Mediterranean, farmers have pushed back for years against efforts to remove prickly pear cactus from their land, even as land managers treated it as an invasive species that should be eradicated. Many local communities argued that the plant was doing more good than harm by protecting soil and surviving where few other plants could. According to a study published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change , researchers examined natural plant regeneration beneath abandoned prickly pear orchards, olive groves and nearby open land at three sites in central Sicily. All three sites are located in areas already considered highly vulnerable to desertification. Instead of focusing only on spread, the researchers asked whether prickly pear can also help native vegetation return to degraded landscapes.
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