News from our newspaper (Correspondent Yang Fan Zhadan, reporter Xu Aoping) Is the damaged forest land effectively repaired? Does the damage to public welfare still exist? In order to objectively identify the facts of a civil public interest litigation case, on August 28, the police of Xuancheng and Guangde procuratorates came to three out of boundary afforestation sites of a mining company in Guangde for on-site inspection, and organized relevant personnel to conduct public hearings.  

In June 2018, a mining company in Guangde contracted the eastern mining area where it obtained the mining right to a mining company in Wumou in the form of independent operation, self financing and independent accounting. After the signing of the contract, neither the mining company nor Wumou has handled the forest land use right certificate. Wumou has organized personnel to occupy one of the Maozhu mountain sites in the mining area by means of mechanical operations and blasting operations to mine limestone, and dump the topsoil generated in the process of quarrying in another Maozhu mountain site.  

It is identified that the actual illegal occupation of forest land in the eastern mining area of the mining company is 225.463 mu, of which 168.689 mu of forest land has not been restored when the procuratorial organ filed the case, except for the occupation area approved by the relevant administrative unit and the forest land area that has been basically restored through manual treatment.  

After the case was filed, the prosecutor made a pre litigation announcement in accordance with the procedure. During the investigation and evidence collection, it was found that the company had greened the unrecovered forest land to a certain extent.  

"The ultimate goal of public interest litigation cases in the ecological field is to achieve effective ecological restoration, and we must be particularly rigorous and prudent." In order to achieve good social results in the handling of this case, on August 28, Xuancheng and Guangde procuratorial joint case handling teams rushed to the company's three out of bounds afforestation sites for on-site inspection.  

In the process of investigation, the prosecutor mainly investigated whether the forest land ecology of the unrepaired forest land and the residual soil stacking area involved in the case has been restored, and whether the artificially restored vegetation has been effectively managed and maintained. The prosecutor, together with the professionals from the natural resources planning department and the third party appraisal company, checked the location and area of the original site and the mountain forest repaired in different places, and combined with the visual results of the on-site inspection, made detailed inspection records.  

In the afternoon of the same day, after the inspection, the joint case handling team immediately organized a public hearing. At the meeting, the prosecutor learned about the ecological environment restoration of 168.689 mu of forest land involved in the case in detail, and the natural resources and planning department of Guangde City and the relevant personnel of the third-party appraisal agency introduced the ecological restoration acceptance of the land involved in the case. The representatives of the enterprises involved also said that they would actively restore and manage the damaged forest land.  

At present, the case is being further handled.