On February 7, 2023, the Supreme Court of Pakistan decided consolidated appeals concerning private title claims to land designated as protected forest in the former State of Swat. The Court held that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Forest Ordinance, 2002, barred the civil suits where the claimants could not establish title predating the forest notification. It allowed the government's appeals and dismissed the private parties' appeals.

In explaining the importance of forest protection, the Court treated climate change as a present crisis, reviewed Pakistan's forest loss and the carbon-sequestration function of trees, and stated that deforestation compounds the warming caused by fossil-fuel emissions. It relied on D.G. Khan Cement Co. v. Government of Punjab for climate democracy and intergenerational justice and connected forest stewardship with Islamic environmental principles. Although the immediate holding concerned title and jurisdiction, the climate-mitigation analysis formed a substantial part of the Court's rationale for protecting the forest.

Shah Zaman Khan and others v. Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

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Shah Zaman Khan and others v. Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - decision

Filed

Pakistan

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

A long-lived, colourless gas, chiefly emitted from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and cement production.

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

This sector creates and distributes information and entertainment through television, radio, print, and digital platforms.

Activities that relate to the production of goods and services from forests.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

Shah Zaman Khan and others v. Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - decision

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector