Overview of Jiangxi Wetland Resources

Jiangxi Province is one of the important provinces along the Yangtze River. It belongs to a mid-subtropical climate zone with abundant rainfall. Abundant hydrothermal resources and unique climate and geography have bred rich biodiversity and become one of the few well-preserved forest and wetland ecosystems in the same latitude area. The wetland resources in Jiangxi Province have the following characteristics:

1. The wetland area is large. There are 3,651,700 hectares of various types of wetlands in the province, accounting for 21.87% of the national land area, of which the water area is 1.6474 million hectares, accounting for 9.8% of the national land area; the natural wetland area is 1,166,100 hectares, accounting for 6.9% of the national land area. There are about 440,000 hectares of freshwater lakes with more than 10 square kilometers, accounting for about 15% of similar lakes.

2. There are many types of wetlands. According to the International Convention on Wetlands classification system, Jiangxi has 23 types of wetlands, including all types of inland wetlands except saltwater lakes and wasteland wetlands. Among them, there are 14 types of natural wetlands and 9 types of constructed wetlands.

3. Wetlands are particularly rich in biodiversity. There are 705 species of higher wetland plants in the province, including 12 species that belong to the National Key Protected Plant List (the first batch), such as Isoetes Sinensis and Oryza rufipogon; 636 species of wetland vertebrates, of which 66 species are national key protected animals. The Jiangxi wetland's biodiversity, which is dominated by the rare waterfowl of Poyang Lake, has a significant international impact. The population of rare fowls overwintering in Poyang Lake exceeds more than half of the world's number of rare fowls. It is a veritable "Kingdom of Migratory Birds."

The Basic Situation of Jiangxi Wetland Justice

1.      Realize the judicial specialization of wetlands. An environmental resource adjudication system combining territorial jurisdiction and basin (regional) jurisdiction has been established. Combining with the ecological characteristics of the wetlands' distribution in Jiangxi, strengthen the ecological judicial protection of crucial river basins such as the Yangtze River, Poyang Lake and the 5 major rivers in the province. The seven rivers basins（Poyang Lake, the mainstream of the Yangtze River in Jiangxi, and the 5 major rivers—Xiu River, Ganjiang River, Fu River, Raohe River and Xinjiang River) environmental and resource courts have been set up, and the jurisdiction of cases related to ecological protection has been centralized across administrative divisions. A judicial protection pattern for the whole river basin's ecological environment has taken shape. Implement the "National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone (Jiangxi) Implementation Plan" issued by the Central Office and the State Council, and issuing the "Scope of Cases Concerning Environmental Resources in Jiangxi Province (Trial)" to improve the allocation of judicial functions of environmental resources. Provincial courts have realized the "3 in 1" centralized trial mode for civil, criminal, and administrative cases of environmental resources, and the central and basic courts have basically realized the "3 in 1" or "2 in 1" centralized trial mode. It strengthened the construction of specialized trial teams. At present, more than 400 professional trial teams have been equipped; professional training has been strengthened, and the province's environmental resource trial business special training courses have been held for three consecutive years. A group of personnel has also been selected to participate in special business training courses organized by the Supreme Court; successively edited the "Environmental Resources Trial Laws and Regulations" and "Jiangxi Environmental Resources Trial Case Selection" and distributed the province's environmental resources trial team to learn from it. A database of environmental resource experts has been established, and 26 provincial experts and more than 200 provincial experts have been hired.

2.      Establish a base for judicial protection of biodiversity. In March 2018, the first judicial protection base for biodiversity in China, jointly established by Jiangxi High People's Court, Jiujiang Middle People's Court and Yongxiu Court, was officially established in Wucheng Town, Yongxiu County, a thousand-year-old town on the bank of Poyang Lake. As a model of the ecological environment of biological diversity in Jiangxi Province, Poyang Lake National Nature Reserve has a warm and humid climate, fertile aquatic plants and rich species. There are 476 species of 359 genera and 128 families in all kinds of plants. The base adheres to modern environmental justice concepts such as strict law enforcement, safeguarding rights and interests, focusing on prevention, restoration, and public participation. It actively builds a two-way interaction mechanism with the Poyang Lake Administration Bureau through roving trials and legal publicity. In promoting the construction of ecological civilization, the judicial service and guarantee functions will be more effectively brought into play to jointly protect Poyang Lake's "pool of clean water" and the biodiversity ecological environment.

3.      Trial a batch of wetland protection cases. There are no cases of direct damage to wetlands in Jiangxi, only water pollution, soil pollution, poisoning and killing of precious migratory birds related to wetland protection. According to incomplete statistics, since the Jiangxi Higher People's Court established the Environmental Resources Tribunal in March 2017, the province has heard 83 cases involving wetland protection, including 52 criminal cases and 31 civil cases involving natural resources and environmental violations. On 23 September 2020, members of the Environmental and Resources Trial Division of the Supreme Court, NPC deputies and members of the CPPCC attended the public interest proceedings of the criminal case involving Li *huo, Li *lin, Li *jia, and Zheng *shan, who poisoned migratory birds in Poyang Lake. These 4 defendants used poison to kill migratory birds when Poyang Lake was in the rainy season. Lushan City Court sentenced the four defendants to six months in prison, four months' detention and six months' suspension for poisoning migrating birds during the flood season on Poyang Lake and was also ordered to pay 15,500 yuan in compensation for ecological restoration.

The Main Difficulties and Problems Of Wetland Justice

1.      Lack of a clear concept of wetland justice

Wetland justice is a prerequisite for judicial personnel to evaluate and trial wetland cases. However, we have relatively few wetland cases at this stage, and there is no clear wetland justice concept in judicial practice. Given the continuity of the wetland's adverse effects after the destruction and the difficulty of recovery, even if it can be recovered, it will take a long time and a lot of costs. The relief measures based on civil and criminal justice's traditional judicial concepts are mostly to punish the defendant's illegal activities and compensate the victims for the losses suffered. These measures can not relieve the wetland ecosystem which has been destroyed, and the consequences of the destruction and pollution of the wetland still exist.

Meanwhile, wetland cases will involve more people's interests, and the scope of impact will be greater. The complexity of the issues and the diversity of cases also reflect the necessity of establishing a specific and clear wetland justice concept. To deal with the relationship between personal interests and public environmental interests and the relationship between economic development and wetland protection is necessary to establish a specific and clear judicial concept of wetland.

2.      Lack of wetland expertise

Wetland cases have stricter requirements on judicial teams. However, the number of talents in China's legal field is relatively scarce, and the talents with both wetland and legal expertise are even rarer. In a society under the rule of law, justice is regarded as the ultimate relief method for destroying wetlands. The judicial trial team's ability is the critical factor. At this stage, the destruction of wetlands is becoming more and more serious, and the number of cases of destroying wetlands is gradually increasing. There is an urgent need for judicial teams with knowledge of wetlands. Suppose a wetland case that has entered the judicial process is not effectively tried due to the judicial team's lack of professional wetland knowledge. In that case, it will reduce the litigants' initiative to maintain the litigation, which is not conducive to the legal development process of wetland protection. Wetland cases are inherently complex, involving a more comprehensive range, and have more robust professional requirements. Judicial staff trying wetland cases should master the legal professional knowledge and understand the environmental protection and wetland-related professional knowledge, which puts forward higher judicial personnel requirements. Although environmental courts have been set up in practice, cases are still heard by judicial personnel from civil courts. Some judicial officers do not understand the professional knowledge of wetlands. The judicial application ability of wetland knowledge is limited, making the trial of wetland cases lack professionalism and pertinence.

3.      Lack of public interest litigation on wetland protection

Wetlands have the attributes of public goods, and the protection of wetlands is a typical environmental public welfare. In the face of complex wetland ecological and environmental problems, it is no longer sufficient to rely solely on the "monorail" wetland protection mechanism of administrative law enforcement agencies such as environmental protection. Therefore, in the case of limited administrative law enforcement methods, social organizations that meet the plaintiff's qualifications can promote wetland protection through environmental public interest litigation. Although we have set up superior environmental resource courts for wetland protection, the functions and roles are still not enough, especially the wetland public interest litigation is seriously inadequate. For example, the "Environmental Protection Law" stipulates that qualified social organizations have plaintiffs' qualifications to initiate environmental public interest litigation. However, social organizations still face difficulties obtaining evidence, filing a case, and making compensation when conducting environmental public interest litigation. The development of local social organizations in Jiangxi is lagging, and they are limited in terms of organizational capacity building and funding sources. Besides, as an evaluation agency, technical specifications and evaluation standards are lacking and need to be further supplemented and improved. The entrusting agency has to face the evaluation agency's lack of qualifications, and the court is difficult to adopt the appraisal conclusion. The public security departments have to face long appraisal and evaluation time, failure to meet the timeliness of case handling and easy loss of evidence.

Suggestions for The Draft of The "Wetland Protection Law (Draft)"

1. Add "Public Participation" content in Article 3

Protecting wetlands is not only the responsibility of the national government but also the obligation of every citizen. Citizens should actively participate in protecting wetlands, increasing their awareness of wetland protection, and implementing national wetland protection policies. Moreover, when the country formulates laws and regulations to protect wetlands, it needs to vigorously promote the hearing system to understand the public's real thoughts and listen to the public's opinions at the first time.

2. Add "Administrative Public Interest Litigation" content in Article 47

Persons in charge and other persons directly responsible for the inadequate protection of wetlands must be punished according to the law. Is it possible to entrust procuratorial organs or social organizations to file administrative public interest lawsuits given the specific situation of the consequences caused by inaction or random action, to strengthen the supervision over wetland management departments and urge them to fulfill their administrative responsibilities of wetland protection better?

On 19 February 2021, the Seminar on Wetland Protection Law (Draft), led by the Political Research Office of CBCGDF was held in Beijing. The conference invited experts and scholars from the field of wetland ecology, environmental law and environmental justice, and front-line volunteers to participate in the in-depth discussion focused on the draft and the problems existing in wetland protection. The conference was broadcast live on platforms such as Baijiahao, Weibo and Bilibili of the CBCGDF. Above are the remarks of President Huang Xunrong of Jiangxi Provincial High People's Court.

Translator/Syying

Original chinese article:https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/0izsEspa4munTknYC8Q7CQ

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