CBCGDF received three judgments from Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court on a PIL against earthworm electric shock devices
2021/9/8 18:10:00 本站

Recently, the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development FoundationCBCGDFreceived three judgments from Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court on a public interest lawsuit against earthworm electric shock devices.

The defendants sold earthworm electric shock devices on an e-commerce platform. The purchasers used the device to hunt earthworms exterminatively, causing irreversible damage to the ecological environment, especially the soil environment. In response to the case, the first-instance court ordered the seller of the electric shock device to make an apology, pay nearly 2 million yuan in damages to the ecological environment and bear the expenses incurred by CBCGDF for public interest litigation. The ruling will be the first time that the production and sale of earthworm electric shock devices have been recognized as ecological damage.

Sheng Xinhui, the litigation agent entrusted in the case, told The Beijing News reporter that the court held that earthworms are wild animals with an important position in the soil ecosystem and that human use of them must be within a reasonable range. Selling electric shock hunting tools is not a reasonable means of sustainable use of wild animals, so it is sold and used. The defendant shall be judged to have caused damage to the public interest of the ecological environment and thus be ordered to bear the loss caused by the damage to the ecological environment, make an apology and pay the corresponding expenses. 

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A ton of dried Dilong is worth more than 300,000 yuan

Apart from "bait", earthworm, as a rare Chinese medicinal material "Dilong", has a unique medicinal value that determines its market blueprint in the production and marketing chain composed of breeding, processing, acquisition and other refined links. According to statistics from the Big data platform of The Chinese Medicine industry of Tiandi Yuntu, there are currently 40 kinds of listed Proprietary Chinese medicines in the pharmaceutical market, including Dilong, whose market demand has increased from 400 tons in 2010 to 675 tons in 2020.

Earthworm electric shock devices from tens to thousands of yuan

"Earthworm electric shock" refers to hunting earthworms by an unspecified user using an electronic trap explicitly designed for earthworm hunting. Earthworm hunters began to abandon the traditional methods of trapping earthworms with medicine or food, and "earthworm electric shock devices" (Dilong devices) became the standard equipped.

CBCGDF, with several environmental protection organizations and volunteers team, jointly launched the "no e-commerce for the wild campaign" in February 2020. The campaign is based on the Wildlife Protection Law of the People's Republic of China. It calls for e-commerce platforms to report and communicate with each other on the sale of wildlife-related products that are national key or prohibited and urges them to take them off the shelves. Last June, CBCGDF received reports from volunteers that earthworm electric shock devices were being sold on major e-commerce platforms.

Local laws and regulations have been formulated in many places to deal with the behavior of "Earthworm electric shock"

In the lawsuit filed by CBCGDF, Lawyer Wang, the legal adviser of CBCGDF, said that although there are no laws or administrative regulations regulating earthworm electric shock, some local governments have already made local regulations. "The lawsuit is based on the Guangdong Provincial Wildlife Protection and Management Regulations revised by the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress on March 31, 2020, and 'earthworm electric shock is illegal."

Article 22 of Guangdong Wildlife Protection and Administration Regulations (revised 2020) prohibits the use of poison, explosives, electric shocks, electronic trapping devices, hunting traps, hunting traps, air guns, ground guns, bushings, sticky nets, ground bows, hanging bars, wire traps and other tools to hunt wild animals. Other terrestrial wildlife other than those under protection shall also be managed in accordance with the provisions of these Regulations.

In 2018, Haikou City People's Government announced the provisions of Haikou city wetland; the regulations explicitly prohibited conduct fish within the wetland, poison fish, electric, electric worms destruction of wetland and its ecological functions, such as the earthworms electric shock in the wetland, by the comprehensive administrative law enforcement his catch and unlawful income confiscated and be fined 2,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan. This is the first law banning earthworms electric shock in wetlands in China.

On June 1, 2020, Beijing put into effect a new version of the Beijing Wildlife Protection and Management Regulations, which expanded the scope of wildlife protection and strengthened the fasting system, extending the scope of the ban from the state key protected wildlife to all terrestrial wildlife and listed aquatic wildlife. In addition, at the end of last year, the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) submitted a recommendation on "Paying attention to and banning earthworm fishing."

"Users are not fully aware of the damage their actions cause to the soil ecology," Lawyer Wang said. "To end the use of earthworm electric shocks devices, the relevant government departments should increase the platform online commodity review for the manufacturing of e earthworm electric shocks devices enterprise review, the producer of environmental protection education. "

Original Chinese article : https://m.bjnews.com.cn/detail/163065876214810.html

 

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