On September 23, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) received a notice of case acceptance from Hainan No. 1 Intermediate People's Court. Zhang, Li, Chen, and Qiu were buying and selling, eventually led to the death of the national rare and endangered wild animal pangolins, and the environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) case was officially accepted.

The focus of this lawsuit is the ecological value of pangolins, not just the market value. So, how should the ecological value of pangolins be calculated? The typical case of public interest litigation in the protection of wild animals by the procuratorial organ give specific references: In the procuratorate of Jintan District, Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, prosecuting 21 people including Yuan XX for illegally purchasing and selling rare and endangered wild animals and products in a criminal incidental civil public interest litigation case, experts based on their current understanding of the value of pangolin resources and compensation for resources actual operability, the resource value of pangolin was evaluated, direct economic value + ecological value = the value of ecological resources created by a pangolin in its lifetime is 510,000 yuan. It should be noted that the more resource value of pangolins is not included. If other resource values are added, the value of a pangolin will far exceed 510,000 yuan.

Although the Jintan case did not finally adopt the calculation method recommended by experts, but still determined the amount of compensation based on the economic value of each pangolin 8,000 yuan, but in the context of such serious global illegal pangolin trade, obviously the punishment of 8,000 yuan per pangolin is not enough to be deterrent.

We very much agree: the ecological value of pangolin is much higher than its economic value - 8000 yuan/per. We also believe that the punishment of wildlife crimes should never ignore the ecological value of wildlife.

As a national key protected wildlife, pangolins are one of the elements of the environment and the object of environmental protection. The destruction of pangolins is the destruction of ecology and the environment. Only by increasing the penalties for illegal wildlife trade, strengthening the dissemination of legal knowledge, and preventing the public from touching the areas of illegal and criminal activities, can we hope to truly put an end to the illegal wildlife trade and protect the country's ecological resources.

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4857/13910.html

By / Maggie