KATHMANDU — Nepal’s Supreme Court has concluded hearings in a petition filed against controversial measures to open up protected areas to development. A ruling in the case, dubbed as one of the most important in Nepal’s conservation history, is expected on Dec. 20, according to the website of the Supreme Court of Nepal. “The court has ordered lawyers from the petitioner as well as the government side to present written arguments as the bench prepares the verdict in the case,” lawyer Dil Raj Khanal, one of the petitioners in the case, told Mongabay. The court is expected to come up with a brief statement on the day of the ruling before issuing a full text of the judgment later on. Khanal and his team filed the petition with Nepal’s highest court on July 28, days after parliament approved new legislation authorizing the government to declare an area within a protected area as falling outside of “highly sensitive” zones — a new and seemingly arbitrary definition. This would allow the construction of different types of infrastructure outside these highly sensitive areas. The Supreme Court issued an interim stay on the new law until its Constitutional Bench passes a ruling on the matter. Tiger in Nepal. Photo credit: DNPWC/NTNC/Panthera/WWF/ZSL Earlier this year, in April, the Nepali government introduced an ordinance to amend a host of laws, including the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, to “improve the investment climate” in the country ahead of an international investment summit later that month. The…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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