A judicial review application was filed by the applicants, aged between 18 and 30, at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on February 28 against the Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability (NRES) and the Government of Malaysia.
The applicants are seeking urgent court intervention to ensure Malaysia does not fall below the 50 per cent forest cover threshold that it pledged at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro under the government of then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.
The commitment has since been reiterated in national policies and reaffirmed by successive administrations, including at the 80th National Land Council meeting chaired by current prime minister Anwar Ibrahim in 2023.
Global Forest Watch data shows that in 2020, Malaysia had 18 million hectares of natural forest covering 55 per cent of its land area. It lost 100 kilohectares of natural forest in 2024, with the total area of humid primary forest in Malaysia decreasing 19 per cent since 2002.
However, the youths’ legal team says new scientific evidence suggests that Malaysia’s forest cover may be approaching a tipping point based on a recent report commissioned for the case, which reveals that between 4.27 million and 4.51 million hectares of natural forests across Malaysia have been earmarked for conversion to timber plantations and other commercial uses.
The report, prepared by environmental think tank Rimbawatch and completed in February 2026, was submitted as part of an expert affidavit to the court.
The reserved areas combined would be Malaysia’s fourth largest state after Sarawak, Sabah and Pahang and it is roughly equal in size to the entire country of Switzerland.
“If those areas are cleared, forest cover could drop to between 47.4 per cent and 49.6 per cent, breaching the 50 per cent pledge,” the applicants said via a press statement.
The High Court has set a hearing date of 14 May for the judicial review.
This lawsuit follows another landmark suit filed in December last year by Rimbawatch, against the federal environment and consumer protection ministries over the responsibility to investigate and address greenwashing claims in advertisements of fossil fuel companies.
The case was scheduled to be heard by the High Court on 21 January 2026, but had been postponed and has yet to be heard, Eco-Business understands.
Protecting constitutional rights
Abe Lim Hooi Sean, one of the applicants of the latest suit, said the case is not just about debating definitions of what constitutes forest cover.
Environmental groups have long warned that forest loss undermines Malaysia’s climate resilience and biodiversity, as forests act as carbon sinks and are central to efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C under the Paris Agreement.
Cutting down forests can exacerbate biodiversity loss, flooding and erode the rights of Indigenous people, who depend on forest resources for their livelihoods and cultural survival. Deforestation is a significant contributor floods in Malaysia, with flood-related losses in 2024 having reached RM933.4 million, up from RM755.4 million in the year prior.
The applicants’ legal counsel, Lim Wei Jiet noted that at its core, this case is about the constitutional rights of Malaysians, especially future generations who are disproportionately affected by the consequences of environmental degradation.
“When deforestation is out of control, your constitutional right to life is imminently threatened. When forests make way for short-term commercial gains, the youths and children’s right to non-discrimination is threatened [as] they will inherit a hotter, more polluted and more dangerous world in the long-term, through no fault of their own,” he said.
The youth-led lawsuit argues that the government’s alleged failure to manage deforestation violates several constitutional principles, including Article 5(1) of Malaysia’s Federal Constitution, which protects the right to life and encompasses the right to a safe, clean and sustainable environment, as well as Article 8(1), which guarantees equality before the law.
The reliefs they are seeking from the court include declarations that their constitutional rights have been violated, and mandatory orders directing the federal government to take all necessary measures to ensure Malaysia achieves and maintains 50 per cent forest cover, with progress updates every 90 days.
They argue that repeated public assurances to maintain 50 per cent forest cover created a reasonable expectation that the pledge would be honoured, and that the government holds natural resources in trust for present and future generations.
Youth-led climate litigation has gained traction worldwide in recent years, with courts in countries such as the Netherlands and South Korea issuing landmark rulings recognising state obligations to address climate risks.
The youngest applicant in the Malaysian forests case, Amira Aliya described the action as a fight for her generation’s future.
“We keep hearing people in power promise to protect us, only to destroy the very land we live on for the sake of private interests. We cannot sit and continue to watch our government risk our future with every tree they cut down. We need to stop deforestation now,” she said.
