Jacarandas and the law
A plain guide to the NEMBA rules – what you may and may not do with jacaranda trees.
Jacaranda mimosifolia is regulated under the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEMBA), Act 10 of 2004, through the 2020 Alien and Invasive Species Lists. What the law allows depends entirely on where the tree stands.
Note: This is a general guide. Confirm site specific requirements with the relevant municipality or environmental authority.
In town: the urban exemption
Jacarandas are not listed as invasive inside the urban areas of Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West. Inside these urban areas national law does not prohibit planting, keeping or replacing them.
“Urban area” has a strict legal meaning: the land inside the proclaimed urban edge, as delineated in the Municipal Spatial Development Framework under the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act, 2013 (Act 16 of 2013). If your site sits inside that edge, the national invasive rules do not apply to it.
Outside the urban edge in the five named provinces
Beyond the urban edge in Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West, jacaranda is a Category 1b species. Category 1b means the landowner must control the plant, and new planting, propagation or trade is prohibited. One narrow exemption keeps certain established farm trees off the list. A jacaranda is not listed only if it meets all 3 of these conditions at once:
it stands within 50 m of the main house on a farm; and
it had a stem diameter over 400 mm (40 cm) measured at 1 m height when the 2020 Notice was published; and
it is located outside a riparian area.
A tree that misses any one of these is Category 1b. The exemption covers established farm trees only. It is not permission to plant new jacarandas in rural or untransformed land, and it does not cover large trees away from a farmhouse.
Public streets, parks and pavements
Being “not listed” is not a personal right to plant, prune or remove trees on pavements, road reserves, parks or other public land. Municipal approval, and planning, heritage, water and service requirements, can still apply even where NEMBA does not.
Quick check
Inside the urban edge (GP, KZN, LP, MP, NW): not listed. Planting, keeping and replacing allowed under national law.
Outside the urban edge (GP, KZN, LP, MP, NW): Category 1b. Control required, no new planting. Sole exemption: an established farm tree within 50 m of the main house, over 400 mm diameter at 1 m when the 2020 Notice was published, and outside a riparian area.
Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Free State: not listed under this entry.
References
Department of Agriculture. 2001. CARA (Act 43 of 1983): Amendment of Regulations. Pretoria: Government Printer.
DFFE. 2020. NEMBA (Act 10 of 2004): Alien and Invasive Species Lists, 2020. Government Gazette No. 43726.
IOL. 2003. Jacarandas: Kasrils Scheming to Halt the Axe. 29 August 2003.
Nowak, D.J., Crane, D.E. and Dwyer, J.F. 2002. Compensatory Value of Urban Trees in the United States. Journal of Arboriculture, 28: 194 to 199.
Stoffberg, G.H. 2006. Growth and carbon sequestration by street trees in the City of Tshwane, South Africa. PhD thesis. University of Pretoria.