10 Chinese regions set up court alliance to better protect national parks

FUZHOU -- Courts in 10 provincial-level regions in China on Tuesday set up a collaborative alliance to strengthen judicial protection of national parks in the country.

The alliance includes 10 higher people's courts, 23 intermediate people's courts, and more than 40 grassroots people's courts in provincial-level regions including Qinghai, Tibet, Sichuan, Jilin, Hainan and Fujian.

The alliance was launched at a meeting held in the city of Nanping in East China's Fujian province.

According to an official of the Fujian Provincial Higher People's Court, the initiator of the collaborative alliance, this alliance aims to increase judicial protection of national parks for high-quality development.

Li Mingyi, an official from the Supreme People's Court, said that many national parks span multiple regions and it is necessary to adhere to systematic governance and improve the synergy of judicial protection of national parks.

According to a framework agreement, judicial authorities will establish and improve a tribunal network to ramp up crackdown on crimes against the environment and resources of national parks.

It stated that the alliance will explore the introduction of a set of unified trial rules, and scientifically use preventive public interest litigations and multi-disciplinary dispute solutions to promote unified management, overall protection and systematic restoration of national parks.

Over the past years, courts in these regions, home to the first batch of five national parks, have explored setting up specialized tribunals to crack down on illegal sewage disposal, mining, hunting and construction, and rolled out judicial measures to help restore the damaged environment.