The appeal of CBCGDF's public interest litigation against the state-owned Dunhuang Yangguan Forest Farm and Dunhuang Grape Wine Industry Co., Ltd has been formally accepted by Gansu Provincial Higher People's Court on January 29, 2021.

CBCGDF filed eight claims in this case, including ordering the defendant according to the law to immediately stop cutting down the forest in the state-owned Dunhuang Yangguan Forest Farm and other acts of destroying trees，stop the continuous act of destroying the ecological environment; immediately eliminate the major risks to social and public interests by further damaging the ecological environment; compensate for damages to the ecological environment; restore the destroyed forest land to its original state; restore the damaged ecological environment, restore to the state and function before the ecological environment is damaged.

Recently, Jiemian News reported on the case, reprinted below, and CBGDF will continue to report on the progress of the case. Gansu Province Higher People’s Court Accepted the Public Interest Litigation of Deforestation in Yangguan, Dunhuang, First Instance Was Rejected.

On February 2, 2021, Jiemian News learned that the Higher People's Court of Gansu Province officially accepted the first instance appeal of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation ((hereinafter referred to as "CBCGDF") against the deforestation incident in Yangguan, Dunhuang.

In March 2019, CBCGDF filed a lawsuit to the People's Court of Gansu Mining Area on the deforestation of Yangguan, Dunhuang. In the first instance, the court ruled that CBCGDF did not have the qualification of litigation subject and rejected the prosecution.

On January 21, 2021, Economic Information Daily published Ten Thousand Mu of Shelterbelts Was Destroyed, and the Last Barrier of Dunhuang Was Almost Lost.

According to the report, the state-owned Dunhuang Yangguan Forest Farm, which once owned about 20000 mu of "Three North" Shelterbelt, over the past decade, it has been suffering from large-scale "shaved head" cutting, more than ten thousand mu of public welfare shelterbelts disappeared in the process of cutting and sawing, and a 5-kilometer-wide passage from Kumtag Desert to Dunhuang was torn open by men.

After the release of the report, "Dunhuang Yangguan Deforestation Incident" caused widespread concern on the Internet. As early as March 2019, CBCGDF has filed an environmental civil public interest lawsuit to the People's Court of Gansu Mining Area. The defendants were the state-owned Dunhuang Yangguan Forest Farm and Dunhuang Grape Wine Industry Co., Ltd.

On December 16, 2020, the case of CBCGDF vs. state-owned Dunhuang Yangguan Forest Farm etc. liability disputes officially opened for trial.

Meijuan Cao, a staff member of CBCGDF, who participated in the trial, told Jiemian News that in this trial CBCGDF filed 8 claims， including ordering the defendant to immediately stop cutting down the forest in the state-owned Dunhuang Yangguan Forest Farm according to law and other act of destroying trees，stop the continuous destruction of the ecological environment; immediately eliminate further damage to the ecological environment and major risks to public interests; compensate for damage to the ecological environment, the specific amount of compensation is subject to the evaluation results；the specific amount of compensation shall be subject to the assessment results; restore the deforested land, restore the damaged ecological environment, restore to the state and function before the ecological environment is damaged.

The ruling opinion in the written order of the first instance of the People's Court of Gansu Mining Area put forward the issue on the qualification of the plaintiff's litigation subject, and dismiss the prosecution. According to the notice of People's Court of Mining Area of Gansu Province, public can provide relevant clues, put forward opinions on the contents of the mediation agreement between the parties, supervise the execution of the conciliation statement or judgment result and other ways to participate in environmental civil public interest litigation.

"The filing of an appeal shows that we are confident in the" subject qualification. " Meijuan Cao told Jiemian News. CBCGDF has also released the information it has about tree cutting in Yangguan Forest Farm on its WeChat official account recently.

Relevant information provided by CBCGDF shows that in a Forest Cutting License issued by Dunhuang Forestry Bureau to Dunhuang Grape Wine Co., Ltd, “the permitted forest type is "farmland shelterbelts", the number of trees harvested is 500.

This data is inconsistent with the local investigation conclusion "no trees were cut to build vineyard" in the press conference on the destruction of shelterbelts in Dunhuang Yangguan Forest Farm, Gansu Province.

According to the data provided by the CBCGDF, the reason for this cutting was "too dense, affecting the ventilation of grapes", with the opinions of local forestry department "due to too dense forest, agree the cutting procedures". It is reported that the CBCGDF is preparing evidence for the appeal.

Translator/Wang Lei

Image source: CBCGDF Research Department

Original Chinese article

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3Xrb3VMzlMpqLqWqeD0TUg

Contribution

https://www.paypal.me/CBCGDFChina

http://www.cbcgdf.org/English/ConfirmDonaTion/0.html