Migrating birds have their letters, and their guardians are responsible
——The procuratorial practice of bird biodiversity protection
(The picture below shows the Chinese merganser wintering in the Kowloon Wetland)
Jiulong National Wetland Park in Lishui, Zhejiang is one of the natural wetlands with the highest ecosystem diversity and the most complete original state in the Oujiang River basin. Every autumn, the "national treasure" migratory bird, the Chinese merganser, comes from the breeding ground in the northeast to the south of the Yangtze River to spend the winter. The Jiulong Wetland is a habitat very suitable for its original habitat.
At that time, a nearby improvement and reconstruction project was about to start, and the Chinese merganser coming to spend the winter was about to arrive, which would inevitably affect their survival. Time is pressing! This made Li Xuan, a volunteer of "benefiting the heart for the public", vice chairman of Lishui Bird Ecological Protection Association and a journalist, very worried. He immediately submitted this clue on the "public interest" volunteer inspection cloud platform.
A War of Protecting Migratory Bird Habitat
"After submitting the clues, I soon got a response from the Lishui Procuratorate, which was more efficient than I expected. The reconstruction project is about to start, and the protection of Jiulong Wetland also involves many functional departments, while the Chinese merganser will arrive in autumn, which is very urgent." Li Xuan said.
After receiving the clues of the case, the Lishui Procuratorate immediately carried out the investigation by consulting experts, visiting administrative organs, field research and other means. Ye Bo, the director of the Fifth Procuratorial Department of Lishui Procuratorate, told reporters that in order to improve the comprehensive benefits of flood control, ecology and tourism, the project involves 23.3 kilometers of Jiulong Wetland, of which about 2.5 kilometers are the habitats of hundreds of waterfowls, such as the first class protected endangered animals, the Chinese merganser, and the second class protected animals, such as the green headed duck and mandarin duck. This section is designed with many engineering projects, such as beach ecological restoration, levee top lifting, waterfront footpath connection and reconstruction. In the short term, the construction period of the original scheme coincides with the wintering period of some migratory birds. The noise, sewage and frequent human activities caused by the project may temporarily drive away the wintering migratory birds. In the long run, the reconstruction project is close to the river bank. After completion, with the increase of tourists, it will inevitably disturb the habitat of Chinese merganser and other migratory birds, or even force them to abandon the habitat.
Because there are many departments involved and the situation is urgent, the Lishui Procuratorate has filed a case, and consulted with the Municipal People's Congress, the Municipal Government, forestry, agriculture and rural areas, water conservancy, engineering design, construction units, etc., and the Liandu District Government where the wetland is located on how to achieve the best balance between flood control needs, tourism development and ecological protection. Relevant experts of Zhejiang Provincial Natural Museum put forward professional opinions on how to avoid relevant wetland sections scientifically and reasonably in project construction.
Through consultation, a design scheme for the optimization, improvement and reconstruction project was formed. Based on expert opinions, the project construction unit re planned the construction project reduction, yield avoidance, beach restoration, etc., and submitted a change scheme. At the same time, the Liandu District Government started the revision of the overall plan of the wetland park, and the wetland protection was further strengthened.
The handling of this case successfully prevented the artificial destruction of bird habitat. In autumn, the Chinese merganser arrived at the Kowloon Wetland on time, which is still a home for them to survive the winter safely.
"Migratory birds are shared and will migrate to other countries, which is common to many countries, and with it comes a common responsibility for protection. These cases show that Chinese prosecutors are earnestly fulfilling this responsibility." Tang Rui, a consultant to the Paulson Foundation and a wildlife protection expert, believes that the handling of cases will undoubtedly save the lives of many migratory birds, China is firmly committed to the goal of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. These cases are good examples and should be shared with other countries.
Qiu Jinghui, Deputy Director of the Eighth Procuratorate Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said that China is still the presidency of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, Especially as Waterfowl Habitat. The procuratorial public interest litigation promotes the joint efforts to protect the National Wetland Park as the habitat of Chinese dune ducks, which is the epitome of China's vivid implementation practice as a responsible big country.
Protecting birds or farmers' interests? Both!
The increasingly improved ecological environment has led to the rapid growth of wild bird populations. But in the agricultural field, the impact of birds on agricultural production has also become a headache for farmers. In order to protect the agricultural harvest and reduce the protection cost, some farmers used nets in violation of regulations around the orchard or in aquaculture, and a large number of wild birds died because of entanglement. "Fog net" is a kind of net used to catch birds.
Kleins European Environmental Protection Association has paid attention to this problem and has provided the prosecution with clues to the case for many times. Around the Siming Lake Wetland in Yuyao City, Zhejiang Province, farmers planted cherry, mulberry, loquat and other cash crops in a large area, and the nets erected in the surrounding orchards often had more dead birds.
The prosecutor of Yuyao Procuratorate found that 41 dead bird nets were found at only 12 points around the Siming Lake Wetland, including the national "three haves" protected animals such as the pearl necked turtle dove, the brown headed brucea javanica, and the national second-class protected animal owl.
"The nets that cause the death of birds are small mesh, thin wire diameter, transparent material, almost invisible in the air, and cannot be detected by birds. Once birds hit the nets, they will be entangled in the nets to death." Experts believe that this is the main reason for the death of birds when they hit the nets.
According to relevant regulations, the nets endangering wildlife are prohibited hunting tools. But without bird catching nets, farmers' harvest will be affected. What should we do?
The Procuratorate of Yuyao City believes that the subjective purpose of farmers to set up nets is to protect agricultural harvests, and handling cases may have poor social effects. In handling cases, the procuratorial organ implements the concept of preventive justice, urges all administrative organs to cooperate in performing their duties through the pre litigation procedure of administrative public interest litigation, not only strengthens the publicity of wildlife protection policies, issues technical specifications for agricultural protective nets, and implements administrative supervision responsibilities; We will also increase financial support, improve agricultural insurance and financial subsidies, and effectively protect the economic interests of farmers; It also strengthened agricultural technology training and guidance, cultivated farmers' awareness of legal risk prevention, and promoted systematic, comprehensive, and source management of standardized use of agricultural protective nets.
"The handling of these cases will save millions of birds, including rare species. This fully demonstrates the powerful power of the public interest litigation system initiated by Chinese prosecutors. By initiating such litigation and inviting experts to participate, it has successfully promoted stakeholders to find practical and win-win solutions to environmental problems." Long Di, the chief representative of the Beijing Representative Office and director of the China EU Environmental Cooperation Program, believes that in the face of environmental crises such as biodiversity loss and climate change in the world, China's procuratorial organs have taken timely measures, which also provide enlightening innovative models for other countries.
Turn off the lights and let the migratory birds go home safely
"Turn off the lights and let migratory birds go home safely" is the theme of World Migratory Bird Day 2022. The impact of visible light pollution on migratory birds has attracted attention. Excessive artificial lighting has destroyed the natural light cycle, changed animal breeding, migration and other living habits, thus affecting biodiversity to varying degrees.
Guizhou Caohai National Nature Reserve is an important habitat for more than 200 species of birds, including the black necked crane, which is a national first-class key protected wild animal. The Reserve is close to Weining County. With the development of the city, the exterior walls of some high-rise buildings in the county area are equipped with high brightness night lights and high brightness spotlights, which cause artificial daytime pollution. These light sources are only about 1.8 to 4 kilometers away from the night habitat of black necked cranes and other migratory birds in a straight line, and the direct light at night affects the habitat and reproduction of black necked cranes and other migratory birds.
On December 25, 2023, the Weining County Procuratorate issued a procuratorial proposal to the relevant departments, proposing to perform regulatory duties according to law and eliminate the adverse impact of light pollution on the habitat and reproduction of black necked cranes and other migratory birds in Caohai Reserve; We will also strengthen policy guidance to investigate and rectify the light pollution around Caohai Nature Reserve from the perspective that it is most conducive to ecological protection.
During the rectification, Weining Branch of Bijie Ecological Environment Bureau sent the Environmental Law Enforcement Notice to 7 light pollution units near the habitat, ordering them to turn off the night lights on the exterior wall and the remote spotlights on the tower crane during the migration season of black necked cranes and other migratory birds, so as to control the light pollution. The Weining County Procuratorate, together with seven departments including Caohai National Nature Reserve Management Committee, jointly launched the "Caohai National Nature Reserve Night Star Protection Action" to comprehensively investigate and rectify the light pollution around Caohai National Nature Reserve.
May 22 this year is the 24th International Biodiversity Day, with the theme of "Biodiversity You and I Participate Together". In the handling of these cases, there are volunteers who are "good for the public".
"The procuratorial organ fully performs the procuratorial function of public interest litigation, urges the administrative organ to perform its duties according to law, and forms a joint force for ecological environment protection." Han Rong, an associate professor of the Social and Ecological Civilization Teaching and Research Department of the Central Party School, who is also a volunteer of "benefiting the public", suggested that we should give full play to the role of group organizations and individual citizens as bridges in grass-roots environmental governance. In the future, we should continue to improve the reward system for reporting environmental violations and fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the masses; Give play to the professional advantages of group organizations in ecological environment protection; Establish a data platform to realize information opening and sharing, and respond to the public's concerns about ecological environment governance.
"The case of public interest damage to the ecological environment is characterized by a large number of stakeholders, which fully reflects the unique advantages of China's procuratorial organs in conducting public interest litigation." Zhang Huiyong, head of the secretariat of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, said that the experience of public interest litigation in ecological protection is a vivid case that tells the story of China's green development to the outside world, and is also the common wisdom wealth of all mankind. We should actively share and interact with the international community to build a clean, beautiful and harmonious earth home.
Recently, Tang Rui provided the procuratorial organ with clues about poaching of red throated songbirds and blue throated songbirds, the national second-class protected animals, around Beijing. It is understood that the procuratorial organ has carried out further investigation on this clue.
