CA Suspends Circular On ‘Other State Forests’
Editor
March 23, 2022
The Court of Appeal has issued an interim order suspending the operation of Circulars issued by the Land Commissioner to hand over the management of “Other State Forests” to the Divisional and District Secretaries. This interim order will be effective until September 1.
In a writ petition before the Court of Appeal, Centre for Environmental Justice and several others had challenged the legality of the ministerial circular No. MWFC/1/2020 dated 04.11.2020.
Petitioners state that improper use of Sri Lanka’s Other State Forests by Divisional and District Secretaries will further reduce Sri Lanka’s total forest cover, which is already at a critical stage. Hence, such a retrograde step could have potentially catastrophic ramifications on Sri Lanka’s declining forest cover. It would also severely weaken the country’s commitments to inter alia, the UNREDD Programme, Kyoto protocol, and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
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