Many verdicts on development and environment conservation

Acting Chief Justice Hari Krishna Karki has said there were many court verdicts on development and environment conservation.

Inaugurating a regional seminar on 'forest and protected area and jurisprudence' organized by the Judicial Academy Nepal here today, Acting JC Karki viewed the development activities must not jeopardise the environment. "Environment law is promoted here, but environmental issues are yet to be implemented as fundamental rights," he observed, adding that clean environment is the pre-condition to the exercise of other human rights.

He further viewed most of the environmental policy and laws are results of judicial decision. CJ Karki, however, said country's judiciary was more active on issuing directive on government's administrative decisions. "With the establishment of federalism, new perspective is required to be legally capacitated so that it would be easy to deal with private and protected area, community protected area effectively," CJ Karki underscored.

According to him, a trans-border protected area invokes both domestic law and international agreements. It also creates an opportunity for inter-state cooperation.

Legal mechanism is needed to address protected areas for integrating both adaptation and mitigation.

The three-day seminar is attended by concerned experts from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Maldives.