Active Judiciary, Safeguarding Green "National Treasures" - A Report on the Legal Protection of Mangrove Ecological Diversity by Guangdong Courts
2023-06-05
Fangfei rests, summer trees are green. Standing on Jinniu Island in Zhanjiang City, the "city of mangroves" in Guangdong Province, looking down at the lush mangroves, the blue sea and sky, and the early summer sea breeze are incredibly refreshing and comfortable. Mangroves, known as the "green lungs of the ocean" and "coast guards," are one of the most important blue carbon ecosystems. They play an extremely important role in purifying seawater, preventing wind and waves, maintaining biodiversity, and sequestering carbon storage. Currently, there are 341 threatened species worldwide, with mangroves as their main habitat. At the end of last year, the report of the 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Wetlands showed that mangrove ecosystems continue to decrease worldwide, and China has become one of the few countries with a net increase in mangrove area. As the province with the longest coastline, Guangdong has 10600 hectares of mangrove forests, ranking first in the country. In recent years, the Guangdong court has resolutely implemented the major decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee to promote ecological civilization construction, mobilized the judiciary, built a strong red line for mangrove safety, adopted various measures such as alternative restoration and preventive governance at the source, and protected the ecological health of the "national treasure" mangrove forests, providing strong and powerful judicial guarantees for ecological civilization construction. Delineating the red line and preventing "damaging mangroves will ruin your job!" Recently, a public trial of a breeding contract dispute case located in the Zhanjiang Mangrove National Nature Reserve is underway. The words of Judge Luo Shicong from the Gaoqiao Mangrove Circuit Court of the Lianjiang People's Court in Zhanjiang have made the owner of the breeding farm, Chen, blush. Zhanjiang is known as the "City of Mangrove". The total area of the mangrove national nature reserve under its jurisdiction is 20278.8 hectares, of which 7228 hectares are mangroves, accounting for 33% of the total area of the country. The mangrove area spans seven counties (cities and districts) of Xuwen, Leizhou, Lianjiang, Suixi, Mazhang, Potou, and Xiashan, as well as Donghai Island. It is the largest in China, with a belt discontinuous distribution along the 1500 km coastline of the Leizhou Peninsula The most widely distributed national level nature reserve and one of the internationally important wetlands. Meanwhile, as one of the key cities for national aquaculture, Zhanjiang has an annual output value of over 70 billion yuan in the aquaculture industry chain, with a workforce of up to 1 million. It is a pillar industry for rural revitalization and farmers' prosperity. How to protect mangroves from harm while legally protecting the healthy development of the mariculture industry has become a new dimension for judges to consider when handling cases. Taking this case as an example, the improper treatment of organic waste discharged from mariculture due to its proximity to the mangrove protection zone will pose a serious threat to the mangrove ecology. The Gaoqiao Mangrove Circuit Court was established in 2017, requiring 24-hour standby for disputes related to mangrove protected areas, and implementing a working mechanism of "on-site filing, on-site trial, on-site mediation, and on-site execution" to safeguard the ecological security of mangroves. We have brought the trial into the mangrove reserve to achieve the goal of educating and governing a case, "Luo Shicong said. We have established a three-dimensional safety net in Zhanjiang for cases involving the destruction of mangrove forests, including the rapid establishment, trial, and conclusion of cases, the protection of the water and land environment of mangroves, and the aerial protection of bird breeding and habitat,
Edit:Zhou Shu Responsible editor:Wang Chen
Source:rmfyb.chinacourt.org
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