"Chinese Procuratorates Support National Park Development: Typical Cases and Ecological Protection Achievements"

On June 28th, as the first anniversary of the official release of the national park master plans approaches, a symposium on the construction of national parks served by procuratorial organs was held in Xining, Qinghai. A series of typical cases of procuratorial services for national park construction were released at the meeting, guiding procuratorial organs across the country to fully exert their public interest litigation functions, to better serve and ensure the construction of national parks, and to promote high-level protection of the ecological environment.

The typical cases released this time include six cases such as the administrative public interest litigation case of the procuratorial organs in the Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province urging the protection of the core area species habitat of the Sanjiangyuan National Park, among which there are 5 administrative public interest litigation cases and 1 civil public interest litigation case. The cases involve five national parks established in the first batch in China, including Sanjiangyuan, Giant Panda, Northeast Tiger and Leopard, Hainan Tropical Rainforest, and Wuyishan National Parks, as well as six provinces including Qinghai, Sichuan, Jilin, Hainan, Fujian, and Jiangxi. The means of public interest protection include not only urging administrative organs to perform their duties according to the law through administrative public interest litigation but also pursuing civil liability of illegal acts through civil public interest litigation, protecting a comprehensive range of objects and employing diverse protection methods. This fully demonstrates the unique natural landscapes and rich biodiversity of China, and also reflects the multi-faceted and comprehensive attention of the procuratorial organs to the protection of national parks.

In April 2022, the People's Procuratorate of Baoxing County, Ya'an City, discovered this clue while handling the criminal and civil public interest litigation case of A and five others for illegal logging. The clue was then reported as a major case of administrative public interest litigation to the People's Procuratorate of Sichuan Province (hereinafter referred to as the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate). The Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate immediately sorted out the cases of illegal logging of maple trees in the Giant Panda National Park since 2021, finding that there were 8 criminal cases involving 17 people in the Giant Panda National Park (Ya'an, Mianyang, Aba areas), including 4 cases involving 13 people for illegal logging of maple trees, accounting for 50% of the case proportion and 76.4% of the number of people. Through case analysis, it was found that most of the maple trees that were illegally logged were over 50 years old, and the survival conditions of maple trees such as Tianquan maple were severely threatened.

After investigation, it was found that maple trees such as Tianquan maple are not national or provincial key protected plants, there are no similar maple trees around the illegal logging site, and the illegal logging has led to the disappearance of Tianquan maple in a certain area. The originality and integrity of the ecosystem within the Giant Panda National Park have been damaged, and the forestry administrative department has not performed its duties properly. In April 2023, the Ya'an City Procuratorate filed a case for administrative public interest litigation. In the same month, the Ya'an City Procuratorate issued a prosecutorial suggestion to the Ya'an City Forestry Bureau, suggesting that it promptly organize and carry out resource surveys and assessments of maple trees such as Tianquan maple, strengthen targeted comprehensive protection, and carry out native ecological restoration through breeding, planting, and other methods.

Through the joint efforts of the procuratorial organs, forestry and grassland departments, and the Chengdu Institute of Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, on December 14, 2023, the wild Tianquan maple was officially included in the provincial key wild plant protection list. To improve the quality of case handling, during the case handling, the procuratorial organs of Baoxing and Tianquan also hired 12 professional volunteers in plant science, animal science, and agricultural ecology from units such as Sichuan Agricultural University and the Agricultural Science Institute as "Yixin for the Public" procuratorial cloud platform biodiversity protection professional volunteers to provide professional opinions on the protection of maple tree species. In April 2024, under the promotion of the procuratorial organs, the forestry departments at the city and county levels, together with the School of Forestry of Sichuan Agricultural University, jointly established a protection team to carry out seedling work for Tianquan maple and Qianjin maple at the same altitude and similar habitats as the place where the trees were illegally logged. The Chengdu Institute of Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the School of Forestry of Sichuan Agricultural University also established corresponding nurseries in the laboratory, and finally, the maple tree population breeding work was successful.

The standardized and efficient Chinese national park system requires the effective maintenance of the originality and integrity of the ecosystem. The administrative public interest litigation case of the People's Procuratorate of Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, urging the protection of the rare tree species Tianquan maple in the Giant Panda National Park, released this time, interprets the systematic and global thinking of the procuratorial organs when performing public interest litigation functions, placing individual illegal acts in the overall consideration of threats to the originality and integrity of the ecosystem, and maximizing the protection of the original ecosystem of the national park to ensure the health, stability of ecological functions, and a complete flora and fauna of the national park ecosystem.

Xu Xiangchun, Director of the Public Interest Litigation Department of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said that the typical cases released this time show that the repair and management of the damaged ecological environment have achieved significant results. The procuratorial organs, in serving the construction of national parks in public interest litigation, not only protect the ecological environment but also pay attention to protecting the interests of local residents, fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of local residents to participate in the construction of national parks and ecological protection, reducing the impact of national park construction on the production and life of local residents, and achieving coordinated development between national park construction and regional economic and social development.