KATHMANDU — Eminent Nepali conservation groups and environmentalists have called on the country’s Supreme Court to repeal a recently enacted law that opens up conservation areas to private infrastructure. The Nepal National Committee of the global conservation authority IUCN said it fears the law, which authorizes the government to approve infrastructure projects within protected areas, may serve vested interests, at the cost of the country’s hard-earned achievements. “If desired, the government can [use the legislation to] allow projects such as hydropower plants, cable cars, hotels, roads, and railways within these [protected] areas, overriding conservation priorities,” the committee representing 27 organizations that have been working in conservation for decades said in a statement. “This raises concerns that natural resources and wildlife may be exploited, while local communities dependent on these resources for their livelihoods may suffer,” it added. In April this year, Nepal’s 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 the international investment summit (April 28-29). Juvenile one-horned rhinos at a rescue center in Chitwan. Image by Abhaya Raj Joshi The law, which was approved by parliament in July, authorizes the government to declare an area within a protected area as falling outside of “highly sensitive” zones, and it allows the construction of different types of infrastructure outside the highly sensitive areas. The Supreme Court issued an interim stay on the new amendment following a petition filed by lawyer Dil…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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