"It used to be 'cutting trees to sell wood', but now it can be 'planting trees to sell air'!" After watching a special trial, a villager in Miaoshou Forest Farm of Jingde County sighed with emotion.

On May 31, when World Environment Day was coming, the civil public interest litigation case of a Song man for deforestation was heard in public after the People's Procuratorate of Xuancheng City filed a lawsuit. Xuancheng Intermediate People's Court "moved" the circuit court to Majiaxi National Forest Park in Jingde County. This is also the first civil public interest litigation case of Xuancheng City to purchase carbon sinks for alternative restoration.

with "Open air prosecution" is an immersive legal popularization for spectators

morning At 9:30, at the entrance of the forest park, the public interest litigation prosecutor, judge seat, defendant and other seats were lined up according to the layout of the trial court, and local villagers, volunteers who "benefit for the public", administrative staff, and public interest litigation police from grass-roots courts were on the spot to listen to the trial of the case.

Prosecution by the procuratorial organ: During the period from May to June 2022, Mr. Song employed others to cut trees on other people's mountain sites without authorization, knowing that cutting trees requires a forest cutting license but without a cutting license. In the process of logging, due to the unclear range of the mountain site, some trees in the adjacent forest land Lvmoujia Mountain Site were also cut across the border. After identification, 431 trees (including 386 Chinese fir trees) were cut, with standing stock of 14.4552 cubic meters and timber volume of 17.6664 cubic meters.

According to experts, the masson pine felled by a certain person in Song Dynasty this time is dead wood, suffering from pine wood nematode disease. Because the transmission risk of pine wood nematode disease cannot be quantified, it is estimated that Song must bear the burden of deforestation of Chinese fir（ 386 trees), the damage value of forest ecological environment during the period is 3477.58 yuan of ecological restoration cost.

Xuancheng People's Procuratorate On May 19, he filed a civil public interest lawsuit with Xuancheng Intermediate People's Court.

"In this case, the indiscriminate deforestation of Mr. Song has led to the loss of regional forest resources in a certain period of time, the decline of ecological services such as water conservation, soil conservation, climate regulation, carbon sink and oxygen release of the forest ecosystem, and the increase of ecological risk of pine wood nematode disease transmission, which has damaged social and public interests.", The prosecutor explained in detail the damage to the ecological environment caused by the illegal act, pointing out that deforestation not only damaged the trees themselves, but also damaged the carbon fixation and regulation service function of the forest ecosystem, resulting in the loss of forest carbon sink.

with "Subscription of carbon sinks" solves ecological restoration problems for infringers

Miaoshou Forest Farm in Jingde County is one of the first carbon sink trading places in China and the first carbon neutral pilot unit in Anhui Province. The innovative use of subscription carbon sinks to replace the restoration of ecological environment damage can not only effectively crack down on illegal acts that damage the ecological environment, but also effectively solve the problems such as the difficulty of replanting and greening, and the lack of repair ability of environmental infringers "Double carbon target" provides more procuratorial practice.

Therefore, the Xuancheng People's Procuratorate requested the court to order Song to subscribe for carbon sinks（ 80.49t) to bear the compensation for ecological environmental damage and expert assessment costs.

The Xuancheng Intermediate People's Court supported the appeal and pronounced the judgment in court.

In addition, the People's Procuratorate of Xuancheng City also urged the People's Procuratorate of Jingde County to formulate and issue procuratorial recommendations to the local forestry authorities to promote the comprehensive management of epidemic trees (pine wood nematode disease), and wrote research reports based on this situation, so as to promote the establishment of a long-term mechanism for the prevention and control of epidemic trees.

with "Base establishment" promotes judicial practice for carbon sink coordination

After the court hearing, Jingde County People's Procuratorate, Jingde County People's Court, and Jingde County Director's Office were jointly established in Majiaxi National Forest Park "Double carbon" judicial protection practice base, which marks that the judicial cooperation mechanism of Xuancheng public interest litigation will be further strengthened.

Jingde County has a good ecology, and the whole county has forest land area One million mu, with a forest coverage rate of 69.2%, is a national ecological county, a national key ecological functional area, and the first batch of "green water and green mountains are Jinshan Yinshan Practice and Innovation Base" in China. Jingde County is currently the only pilot county for carbon sequestration project development and trading in the province. Among the carbon sequestration projects, there are 151.4 hectares of reforestation in the state-owned Miaoshou Forest Farm in Jingde County. It is estimated that 10311 tons of carbon sequestration will be added in August 2021, which can meet the demand of "ecological justice+carbon sequestration" at 48-60 yuan per ton.

"Jingde County is the innovative practice base of the two mountain theory. At that time, the slogan was' Don't cut down trees, you can get rich '. Now, through carbon sink trading, we have deeply understood the meaning of this sentence." Liu Chengying, a member of the Party Leadership Group of the People's Procuratorate of Jingde County, sincerely sighed.

It is reported that the People's Procuratorate of Jingde County is located in the whole province On the basis of the ecological procuratorial work brand of "criminal punishment+ecological compensation", carbon sink elements have been added to build the ecological procuratorial cultural brand of "procuratorial+carbon sink subscription". Fully integrate the concept of "carbon sink subscription instead of ecological restoration" into judicial practice, innovate alternative restoration methods for ecological environment damage, and reach a "carbon sink subscription agreement" through holding public hearings and consultation with the parties. 80% of the carbon sink subscription compensation funds will be used for ecological environment restoration by organizing local low-income villagers to carry out off-site replanting and greening, We will help rural revitalization and ecological civilization construction, and make useful attempts for procuratorial organs to participate in and promote carbon peak and carbon neutrality.

In addition, the People's Procuratorate of Jingde County has cooperated with the procuratorial organ of Lishui District The "off-site subscription of carbon sinks" has reached a preliminary intention of cooperation to achieve complementary advantages and win-win cooperation, constantly explore the path of reproducible and promotable carbon sink trading to transform economic efficiency, actively and steadily promote the construction of carbon sink trading market, and contribute to the rule of law to promote the reform and innovation of ecological civilization construction in Jingde County.