agricultural
resources
Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act 43 of 1983
The Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act 43 of 1983, or CARA, is legislation administered by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, which regulates natural agricultural resources. Agricultural resources include soil, water sources, and vegetation, excluding weeds and invasive plants.
Did you know?
CARA aims to protect the production potential of South Africa’s agricultural land and does so by (among other things) including provisions aiming to combat weeds and other invasive plants. CARA doesn’t override the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act 10 of 2004 (NEMBA), though. If the plant is considered alien or invasive under NEMBA, you will need to comply with those relevant provisions too.
The CARA Regulations provide for three categories of alien or invasive plants
Category 1
Category 1 plants are prohibited from occurring in land or in inland water surfaces, and land users are legally required to remove them
Category 2
Category 2 plants are prohibited from occurring in land or in inland water surfaces unless the land user has written permission (in the form of a written demarcation area for category 2 plants)
Category 3
Category 3 plants are not allowed to be grown on land or in inland water surfaces, there is an exception for those plants that were already in land or in inland water surfaces by 1984 unless they occur withing 30 meters of the 50 year flood line, in which case additional obligations exist for the land user.
For more information on your responsibilities relating to weeds and invader plants see regulations 15 – 16 CARA Regulations.
Cara defines ‘land user’ as:
the owner of land, and includes:
- any person who has a personal or real right in respect of any land in his capacity as fiduciary, fideicommissary, servitude holder, possessor, lessee or occupier, irrespective of whether he resides thereon;
- any person who has the right to cut trees or wood on land or to remove trees, wood or other organic material from land; and
- in relation to land under the control of a local authority, that local authority,
but not a person who carries on prospecting or mining activities.
The CARA Regulations create a number of positive obligations for land users in terms of cultivation of land, for more information see regulations 2 – 14 of the CARA Regulations.
CARA doesn’t apply to land zoned as an urban area.