Court case set to test new environment law
Print Edition
A LAWSUIT filed against four Chinese mining executives accused of destroying a stretch of woodland is shaping up as a test of China鈥檚 strengthened environmental law and the ability of green groups to make companies more accountable for their actions.
The miners hired workers to clear about 2 hectares of forest on Hulu Mountain in south China鈥檚 Fujian Province in 2008 in a bid to extract granite from the mountaintop without a licence, according to two environmental groups who filed the suit.
The plaintiffs sued the executives under amendments to the environmental protection law, which took effect on January 1, demanding they fund restoration of the forest to its natural state.
Three of the executives were jailed last year for between 14 and 18 months after being convicted of illegally occupying agricultural land. The fourth was not charged in that case.
The lawsuit, filed at a Fujian court in early January, was the first to be accepted under the new law. A court in east China鈥檚 Shandong Province has since accepted two similar cases.
Liu Xiang, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he expects the Hulu Mountain suit to be heard next month.
鈥淲e have a good starting point now. I can use (this law) as a tool to exercise my right of oversight,鈥 said Ma Yong, deputy director of the All-China Environment Federation, a body controlled by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
The federation is not a plaintiff in the Hulu Mountain lawsuit, but is involved in the other two cases.
The amendments, the first to China鈥檚 environmental legislation in 25 years, enshrined tougher punishment for polluters. They also apply to acts committed before the changes took effect.
As part of the new measures, government-registered can now sue polluters.
Also, China鈥檚 Supreme Court said last month it will give environmental groups the power to sue before any pollution has occurred if they could show that a particular activity could threaten the public interest.
Wu Anxiang, a second lawyer for the plaintiffs, said there was enough evidence to show the executives were responsible for the forest鈥檚 destruction.
The other plaintiff is Beijing-based Friends of Nature.
The executives worked for Hulu Mountain Sand Base Hengxing Stone Factory, the group said.
Chinese courts have previously rejected many environmental lawsuits because there was no framework to clarify who was eligible to sue.
In 2013, courts turned down 10 lawsuits filed by Friends of Nature and the All-China Environment Federation.
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