China News Service, Hefei, April 12 (Liu Hao, Cheng Haifeng) Recently, the public security organs of Shexian County, Anhui Province have detected 2 cases of endangering the national key protected wild plants. Fang and Cheng illegally dig wild orchids without approval. File an investigation.
This is also the first case of illegal harvesting of wild orchids by the public security organs of Anhui Province.
In late February 2022, the suspects Fang and Cheng (both from Ningguo, Anhui) cleaned dead pine trees in a village in Shaolian Township, Shexian County. Dig up an orchid clump and plant it in the yard of a rented house.
According to the identification of wild plant experts, the wild orchid involved in the case is Chunlan, which belongs to the genus Orchid, and is a national second-level key protected wild plant.
On September 7, 2021, the State Forestry and Grassland Administration and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs officially released a new version of the "List of National Key Protected Wild Plants", adding 268 species and 32 categories of wild plants.
According to Shexian police, all wild orchids except Rabbit orchid are listed as national first-level or second-level key protected wild plants and are protected by law.
Photo by Cheng Haifeng, an orchid that was harvested and transplanted
Article 344 of the "Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China" clearly stipulates: "Violating state regulations, illegally logging or destroying precious trees or other plants under special state protection, illegally purchasing, transporting, processing, or selling precious trees or other plants under key state protection other plants and their products, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance, and shall also be fined; if the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined.”
Shexian is located in the mountainous area of southern Anhui, with a wide variety of wild plants in the territory. It is known as the "Kingdom of Wild Plants" in the mountainous area of southern Anhui. The main wild orchids in Shexian County are Chunlan, Huilan and Hanlan, all of which are national secondary key protected wild plants.
In order to protect biodiversity, in recent years, the Shexian public security organs have paid close attention to criminal activities such as damage to the ecological environment and wild animal and plant resources, and continued to crack down on criminal acts of destroying biodiversity according to law. 18 cases have contributed to the protection of biodiversity and the maintenance of ecological security.
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