The Supreme People’s Procuratorate Interprets the Typical Case of ＂Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Helps River Basin Ecological Environment Protection and Governance＂

　　Cctv newsA few days ago, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate released a number of typical cases of procuratorial public interest litigation to help river basin ecological environment protection and governance, further deepening the handling of public interest litigation cases of river basin ecological environment protection and governance. Where is the difficulty in the protection and management of river basin ecological environment? What are the characteristics of these typical cases? The head of the Eighth Procuratorate of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate answered the reporter’s question.

　　1. What are the particularities of watershed ecological environment protection and governance? How does procuratorial public interest litigation play its role?

　　A:Rivers, lakes and reservoirs are an important part of ecosystem and national space, and also the basic support of economic and social development. The protection and management of river basin ecological environment is unique;The first is integrity.The river basin is a complete, independent and highly integrated natural area from the source to the estuary, which includes various ecological elements such as mountains, rivers, fields, lakes, grass and sand. The natural ecology of the river basin is holistic, systematic and has its inherent laws.The second is synergy.River basins often involve different administrative areas, but their boundaries are different from those of traditional administrative areas, involving the upper and lower reaches of rivers, the left and right banks and nearby areas, so it is easy to form a situation in which the upper and lower reaches are different, the left and right banks are out of sync, and "Jiulong Water Control" occurs.The third is complexity.River basin is a compound region composed of physical geography and economic and social development, and the river basin ecosystem is the material basis for human survival and development and the sustainable development of regional economy. Different carrying capacity of resources and environment and different stages of development lead to different ways and efforts to balance ecological functions and economic society. The above characteristics determine that the river basin ecological environment management must be a long-term, complex and arduous systematic project. It is necessary to consider the relationship between natural resource elements and ecosystems, the relationship between man and nature, the relationship between regional coordination and river basin system management, and the relationship between ecological environment protection and sustainable economic and social development, so as to promote the coordination between local and overall situation, the integration of temporary and permanent solutions, and the combination of current and long-term development.

　　The party and the state have always attached great importance to the protection and governance of great rivers and lakes. General Secretary of the Supreme Leader visited rivers and lakes many times and personally planned to promote ecological environment protection and high-quality development in river basins. Procuratorial organs adhere to the guidance of the supreme leader’s ecological civilization thought and the supreme leader’s rule of law thought, uphold systematic thinking, adhere to collaborative governance, give full play to the role of public interest litigation in urging coordination and ensuring the rule of law, and promote comprehensive management, systematic management and source management of river basin ecological environment protection.First, the overall promotion is based on the management of large rivers and basins.The Supreme People’s Procuratorate established and held four consecutive procuratorial forums for the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and introduced 10 procuratorial measures to serve the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, pragmatically deepening the procuratorial cooperation in the Yangtze River Basin; We formulated 18 opinions on serving the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, and jointly launched special actions such as "cleaning up the four chaos, protecting the mother river" and "protecting the water resources of the Yellow River Basin" with the Ministry of Water Resources, and held the first national strategic procuratorial forum on service guarantee for the Yellow River to jointly protect the An Lan of the Yellow River.The second is to further advance the handling of major cases as an incision.The waters of Wanfeng Lake and Nansi Lake connect many provinces, and the upstream and downstream, the left and right banks are treated differently. The pollution has been for many years, and the highest inspection directly filed a case. The four-level procuratorate joined forces to promote local governments to jointly govern. In view of the problem of ship pollution along the Yangtze River that has been reflected for many years, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate directly filed a case with public interest litigation, and more than 550 cases were filed, which promoted multi-sectoral coordination and basin-wide linkage management.The third is to promote synergy with the goal of system governance.We will give full play to the role of integrated case handling, cross-regional procuratorial cooperation and special supervision activities, solve the problem of "Jiulong Water Control" in rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and promote the integrated protection of grass and sand in mountains, rivers, fields, lakes and reservoirs. Adhere to collaborative governance, and promote the solution of universal problems of river basin ecological environmental protection by issuing procuratorial suggestions on social governance and "procuratorial suggestions+research reports" and boosting industry governance. Strengthen the joint efforts of "procuratorial+administrative" to perform their duties, deepen the mechanism of "river (lake) leader+procurator-general", and create a new model to solve outstanding problems in the field of river and lake management and protection.

　　2. What are the main considerations for publishing these typical cases of procuratorial public interest litigation to help protect and manage the ecological environment of the river basin?

　　A:In this special issue, a typical case of procuratorial public interest litigation helping watershed ecological environment protection and governance is released, mainly considering the following factors:First, deepen the handling of public interest litigation cases for river basin ecological environment protection and governance.The characteristics and problems of river basin ecological environment protection and governance are unique. Procuratorial organs constantly explore innovative working methods and mechanisms in helping river basin ecological environment protection and governance, and have achieved positive results and accumulated rich practical experience. The release of a number of typical cases through selection is not only a summary of the experience and practice of handling cases in various places in practice, but also a redeployment and further promotion of the procuratorial work of public interest litigation in river basin ecological environment protection and governance.The second is to play the guiding role of typical cases.The protection and management of river basin ecological environment involves many departments, a wide range of fields and complicated reasons, and most of them are "long-standing problems" and "hard bones", which are difficult to handle. The illegality and basin nature of the problems supervised by these typical cases are obvious. The performance of duties and the effectiveness of handling cases reflect the unique value of the procuratorial public interest litigation system, which plays a normative role in guiding the procuratorial organs to handle cases in the field of river basin ecological environment protection and governance, helps to improve the accuracy and standardization of handling cases, and promotes the implementation of the requirements of "running every public interest litigation case well with high quality and efficiency".The third is to play the role of case interpretation.The protection and management of ecological environment in rivers, lakes and reservoirs need to unite all forces and work together in many ways. By publishing these typical cases, we will enhance the attention and recognition of all sectors of society on the procuratorial public interest litigation of river basin ecological environment protection and governance, and stimulate the endogenous motivation of the whole society to actively participate in the protection and governance of rivers and lakes.

　　3. What are the characteristics of the typical cases published in this batch?

　　A:This time, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued seven typical cases of procuratorial public interest litigation to help protect and control the ecological environment of the river basin, involving illegal over-exploitation of groundwater, destruction of mangrove wetlands, illegal discharge of water ecological flow, ship pollution, aquaculture pollution, black and odorous water pollution and other issues. The characteristics of these typical cases are:

　　The first is to deepen the performance of procuratorial work and solve the problem of "Jiulong Water Control" in the river basin.There are some problems in the management of rivers, lakes and reservoirs, such as different upstream and downstream lines and unsynchronized left and right banks, which are easy to form a tragedy of the commons. By handling cases in an integrated way, the procuratorial organs have broken the inherent framework and regional regulatory barriers, effectively exerted the synergy of procuratorial supervision and supervision of public interest litigation, and promoted the coordinated governance of different regions and departments. The procuratorial organs of Qujing City, Yunnan Province, in view of the complexity of water pollution sources, many regulatory bodies and different levels in Nanpanjiang River Basin, adopted the mode of "integrated case handling and cross-regional cooperation", which effectively promoted the comprehensive management of key areas and promoted the obvious improvement of water environment. Suining City Procuratorate of Sichuan Province, in view of the difficult problem of controlling the small watershed across the Tongxin River, coordinated the handling power of the procuratorates in Daying County and Shehong City under its jurisdiction, promoted the handling of cases in an integrated manner, urged the clean-up of 12.5 tons of various pollutants, and added shoreline monitoring points, dismantled illegal sewage outlets, and repaired and renovated the sewage pipe network.

　　Second, pay attention to the protection of natural environmental factors and promote the improvement of water ecological environment quality in the basin.Water, soil, minerals, biology and other environmental factors are closely related, forming the ecosystem of rivers, lakes and reservoirs. According to the particularity of natural environment elements in different river basins, procuratorial organs carry out public interest litigation according to local conditions to help improve the level of river basin protection and governance. The biggest contradiction in the Yellow River Basin is the shortage of water resources. Qinyuan County Procuratorate of Shanxi Province, in view of the problem that a coal mining enterprise illegally collects groundwater and destroys the groundwater resources of the first-class tributary of the Yellow River, filed a lawsuit according to law when the procuratorial suggestions sent to the water conservancy department were not implemented, prompting the water conservancy department to urge the enterprises involved to pay more than 440,000 yuan of water resources tax and invest more than 3 million yuan to install water-saving equipment to achieve water saving and efficiency improvement. The hospital also organized the research and development of a water resources protection case supervision model, which effectively managed similar problems through abnormal data screening and case handling. Lianjiang City Procuratorate, Guangdong Province, in view of the serious damage to the living environment of the special species of Mangrove in Jiuzhou River Basin, urged several administrative organs with regulatory responsibilities to fully perform their duties according to law, rectify river water pollution, resist the invasion of alien species, repair mangrove wetlands, and promote the water ecological protection of the whole basin.

　　The third is to coordinate the treatment of industrial pollution problems and improve the level of water pollution prevention and control in river basins.Procuratorial organs around the country have tailored procuratorial supervision plans to solve the environmental pollution problems in key areas and industries in the river basin, so as to boost enterprises’ standardized operation and green development. The procuratorial organs of Yichang City, Hubei Province, in view of the illegal repair and dismantling of ships by some shipping enterprises under their jurisdiction, which seriously threatened the ecology and water quality safety of the Yangtze River, urged a number of administrative organs to perform their duties and rectify according to law, and urged shipping enterprises to obtain shipbuilding repair permits according to law, complete environmental assessment procedures, and increase investment in pollution prevention and control facilities. At the same time, we will promote the promulgation of "Several Opinions on Standardizing Ship Dismantling Work", strictly enforce industry access and standardize industry governance.

　　Fourth, adhere to the integrity of the ecosystem and promote the source management and comprehensive management of the basin.The water environment and ecosystem of rivers and lakes are inseparable whole. Procuratorial organs adhere to the concept of system, based on the procuratorial function of public interest litigation, trace the source, treat both the symptoms and the root causes, and promote the integrated protection and management of landscape, forest, field, lake, grass and sand in the river basin. In view of the problem that aquaculture pollution at the source of rivers endangers the water quality of the downstream reaches, the Procuratorate of Anyuan County, Jiangxi Province issued pre-litigation procuratorial suggestions to promote the clean-up and transshipment of illegal aquaculture. 97 "small-scattered pollution" farms in its jurisdiction were shut down, and 248 farms improved their supporting environmental protection facilities, realizing that the water quality of the exit section reached the standard of the first-class protected area. Jiangkou county Procuratorate filed a civil public interest lawsuit against the problem that the water resources management company failed to build protection facilities and discharge ecological flow as required in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which resulted in insufficient ecological flow in the lower reaches and damaged the ecological security of the basin, and urged the company to build a fishery migration channel, maintain the minimum ecological flow discharge value, carry out proliferation and discharge, and effectively restore the water ecology in the lower reaches.

　　4. In the next step, what measures will the procuratorial organs take to better promote the ecological environment protection and governance of the river basin?

　　A:Report to the 20th CPC National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized "coordinating water resources, water environment and water ecological management, and promoting ecological protection and management of important rivers and lakes". In the next step, the procuratorial organs will thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th Party Congress and the spirit of the National Ecological Environment Protection Conference, focusing on the following tasks.First, focus on work priorities and continue to increase efforts.. We will thoroughly implement the strategic tasks and major measures for the construction of a beautiful China, and help the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and other major rivers and important lakes to be protected and managed. We will continue to intensify the efforts of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the provincial procuratorate to handle cases by themselves, focusing on helping to solve outstanding problems of comprehensive river basin management that need upstream and downstream linkage and effective connection between shore and shore, forming a powerful kinetic energy to promote the handling of major cases, accurately demonstrating and leading, and improving the effectiveness of river basin management in all directions. We will continue to handle cases in key areas such as water environment, water ecology, water resources and water safety, and realize the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand. Firmly adhere to the strategic orientation of ecological priority and green development, pay attention to the methods of handling cases, and coordinate the ecological environment protection and economic development of the basin.The second is to deepen the integrated performance of duties and improve the quality and efficiency of supervision.Strengthen the overall coordination of major river basin management cases by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and provincial procuratorates, timely assign, supervise and handle major cases, and break down obstacles in handling cases. Make good use of the case-handling mode led by the superior procuratorate and the procurator-general, set up a case-handling team across departments and levels, and effectively integrate the case-handling forces. Strengthen the connection between public interest litigation procuratorial work and criminal procuratorial work, integrate performance of duties and increase punishment. Summarize and promote the procuratorial mode of public interest litigation for the whole basin and cross-regional ecological environment management, and strengthen the construction of cross-regional cooperation mechanism. Deepen the application of modern science and technology, innovate and build a legal supervision data model, and release the empowerment effect of big data.The third is to adhere to the coordinated performance of duties and form a joint force for governing the river and managing water.Deepen cooperation with administrative and judicial organs in the protection and governance of river basin ecological environment, improve the system of connecting procuratorial public interest litigation with administrative law enforcement, strengthen the connection between public interest litigation and ecological damage compensation system, and promote the construction of a management pattern of river basin planning, regional coordination and departmental linkage. Strengthen public participation and social supervision of public interest litigation, condense the wisdom advantages of professional volunteers, and use the "benefit the heart for the public" procuratorial cloud platform to continuously improve the social support system.The fourth is to focus on treating both the symptoms and the root causes and promote systematic governance.Continue to strengthen the awareness of case discovery and research, take the initiative to find shortcomings and loopholes in river basin ecological environment protection and governance, and promote the improvement of relevant industries, fields and regional governance systems and mechanisms in various forms such as social governance procuratorial suggestions and "procuratorial suggestions+research reports" to help solve the "focus and stubborn disease" and blocking difficulties in river basin ecological environment protection and governance, and promote the improvement of the level of river and lake protection and governance.

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　　The Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued a typical case of "Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Helps River Basin Ecological Environment Protection and Governance"