The judgement on the management of other forests is to be delivered on September 28.

The writ petition filed challenging the operation of circulars issued by the Land Commissioner to hand over the management of "Other State Forests" to the Divisional and District Secretaries was today fixed for judgement by the Court of Appeal. The judgement will be delivered on September 28.

In a writ petition before the Court of Appeal, the Center for Environmental Justice and several others challenged the legality of ministerial circular No. MWFC/1/2020, dated April 11, 2020. The petitioners alleged that following these circulars, the Divisional and District Secretaries have powers to grant permits for the clearing of protected areas.

The petitioners state that several such incidents have been reported recently; one such incident is where three district secretaries have illegally given permits for approximately 10,000 acres in the Mahaweli Floodplains National Park. The petitioners further state that these new circulars have facilitated corruption at the lower levels of government.

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 for Sri Lanka's declining forest cover. It would also severely weaken the country's commitments to, inter alia, the UN-REDD Programme, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Land Commissioner General, Minister of Lands, Secretary to the Ministry of Lands, Minister of Wildlife and Forest Conservation, and several others were named as respondents.