In November 2019, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) made a request to the Department of Forestry in Hebei Province for disclosure on information about the source of permitted import of African pangolin scales. According to the disclosed file, the trade of a total of 825-kilogram pangolin scales was permitted in three times. There were three pharmaceutical companies involved in the trade. Several days later, CBCGDF requested for more details on these trades and company information but was refused by the Hebei Department of Forestry on the ground that disclosing business secrets was not allowed.

However, the reason used by the Hebei Department of Forestry was not fully according to relevant regulations. In China’s regulations about information disclosure by public departments, the fifteenth regulation stated that information refused to be disclosed, if possible, of bringing great damage to public interests, should be disclosed. Trading of endangered wild animal parts breaks the ecological balance and damages biodiversity; therefore, it will be being damage to public interests. As we can see, disclosure of such information is a must.

This January, the State Forestry Bureau received CBCGDF’s application for reconsidering the refused disclosure by the Hebei Department of Forestry and decided that Hebei Department of Forestry should cancel its reply and disclose more information.

Another great news came this month. The Baoding intermediate people’s court-approved CBCGDF’s appeal against companies taking part in illegal pangolin scales trade. This is the beginning of our success in another public interest lawsuit. We hope that the Baoding intermediate people’s court will make the right judgment in this.

Reference links:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Ei2OKyIGY_5lFqEtp4jUJA

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/F3CSBrpgZCWgjUegIbUllQ

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JuUrATXcOI9ubEepij9jkg

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/nNifq7plUq8qkgSgnQmAZw

By / Peijia