China News Service, November 9th. According to the website of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, procuratorial organs across the country conscientiously implement the National People’s Congress Standing Committee’s decision on a total prohibition of illegal wildlife trade, elimination of abuse of wildlife, and effective protection of people’s lives, health and safety. "From January to September this year, a total of 15,154 people were prosecuted for crimes of damaging wildlife resources, an increase of 66.2% year-on-year.
Among them, 6,974 were for illegal fishing of aquatic products, 3,769 were for illegal hunting, 3,007 were for illegally purchasing, transporting, and selling precious, endangered wild animals, precious, and endangered wild animal products, and 1,131 were for illegal hunting and killing precious and endangered wild animals. People, 273 people were responsible for smuggling precious animals and precious animal products.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate pointed out that the trends and characteristics of this type of crime are as follows:
One is the increase in the number of cases and the relative concentration of crimes.
Judging from the situation in the first three quarters, the procuratorial organs prosecuted the crime of sabotaging wildlife resources.
Among them, 2181 people were sued in the first quarter, 5235 people were sued in the second quarter, and 7,738 people were sued in the third quarter.
Judging from the charges, this type of crime mainly focuses on the crime of illegal fishing of aquatic products, the crime of illegal hunting, and the crime of illegal purchase, transportation, and sale of precious and endangered wild animals, precious and endangered wild animal products. The number of people prosecuting these three types of crimes in the first three quarters accounted for 90.7% of the total number of criminals destroying wildlife resources.
Second, the crime area is relatively wide.
Judging from the distribution of crimes, crimes of damaging wildlife resources have occurred all over the country.
Among them, the crime of illegal fishing of aquatic products is mainly concentrated in Chongqing, Sichuan, Jiangsu and other provinces in the Yangtze River Basin, and the crime of illegal hunting is mainly concentrated in inland provinces such as Hunan, Jilin, and Jiangxi. The illegal purchase, transportation, and sale of precious, endangered wild animals, precious, Crimes of endangered wildlife products are concentrated in coastal provinces such as Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu.
The third is the wide range of wild animals involved.
From the perspective of judicial case handling, the criminal objects of this type of case include living and dead bodies, as well as animal products.
There are tiger skins, rhino horns, pangolin slices and other precious and endangered wild animal products, golden pheasant, macaque, rock sheep and other national key protected animals, as well as thrush, sparrow and other "three animals" with important ecological, scientific and social values. ".
Fourth, criminal trading venues tend to be networked.
With the rapid development of e-commerce, micro-commerce platforms, and express logistics industry, online trading has gradually become an important link in the industry chain of underground wildlife trading.
Some online shops, dressed in legal clothes, privately sell prohibited wild animals and products such as parrots and golden pythons, and some businesses release wild animal sales information through WeChat Moments.
For example, in a case of illegal purchase of precious and endangered wild animal products handled by the Xicheng District Procuratorate of Beijing, the suspect purchased ivory products through WeChat, and the other party delivered the goods by express delivery. The delivery address chose a courier collection point in a public place, and the recipient was a fictitious Pseudonym.
Fifth, the crime model is gradually industrialized.
After the criminals hunted wild animals, they sold them to farmers' markets and game restaurants. In some cases, cross-regional transactions occurred, forming a fixed "hunting-sales-transportation" industrial chain.
Especially with the popularity of "exotic pets", some people purchase wild animals and wild animal products for appreciation or breeding out of curiosity or "collection hobby".
The persons involved in the case include smugglers, importers, source dealers, and distributors who trade wild animals as their business, as well as intermediaries and agents who are connected to the family to make a profit, as well as pure "exotic pet" lovers, forming a huge Underground trading network.
For example, an "exotic pet" case handled by the Chongzhou City Procuratorate in Sichuan Province involved 615 animals, which were sold to all provinces in the country except Tibet.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate analyzed the reasons for the increase in the number of such crimes:
First, the crackdown has increased.
Since the beginning of this year, law enforcement and judicial organs have conscientiously implemented the decisions of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, strengthened their crackdown and investigation efforts, carried out a series of special operations against crimes of damaging wildlife resources, and handled a number of criminal cases of damaging wildlife resources.
The second is the temptation of illegal interests.
High profits make criminals take risks. In order to seek illegal profits, hunting and trading wild animals are their professions, and they have been engaged in illegal transactions for a long time.
There are even criminals who "smartly borrowed" social occupations to seek illegal benefits.
For example, the Changxing County Procuratorate of Fujian Province handled a case involving the illegal purchase, transportation, and sale of rare and endangered wild animals. The suspect was an individual aquarium owner, who used aquarium operations as a cover, and exchanged goldfish and other items from others. Redeem the rare animal pig-nosed turtle.
The third is weak legal awareness.
The rise in this type of crime also reflects some people’s weak conception of the rule of law, especially in some remote mountainous areas. Some people have not yet changed the outdated concept of “relying on mountains to eat mountains and relying on water for drafting”, and they are not aware of the social harm of hunting wild animals. In place, easy to touch the legal red line.
For example, in a case of illegal hunting and killing of precious and endangered wild animals handled by the Procuratorate of Lanping County, Nujiang Prefecture, Yunnan Province, the suspect hunted alpine vultures for more than ten years, with hundreds of them, but he did not know about alpine vultures. Belongs to national key protected animals.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate stated that from January to September this year, the procuratorial organs attacked such crimes:
One is to insist on strict and quick punishment.
If a crime constitutes a crime and meets the conditions for approval of arrest and prosecution, the procuratorial organs shall promptly arrest and prosecute according to law, and resolutely crack down.
In particular, severely punish "source" crimes such as illegal hunting, killing, and selling precious and endangered wild animals, forming a powerful deterrent.
Strengthen the crackdown on hunting, sale, purchase, transportation and other links, and highlight the investigation and control of logistics and transportation, trading venues, and "game pavilions".
Strengthen communication with the courts, put forward strict sentencing recommendations in accordance with the law, and give full play to the punishment and prevention functions of penalties.
The second is to strengthen the function of procuratorial supervision.
Strengthen the supervision of public security organs in investigating and handling wildlife-related cases, effectively guide investigations and obtain evidence, comprehensively collect, fix, and improve evidence to ensure accurate application of the law.
Strengthen the supervision of administrative law enforcement agencies in investigating and prosecuting crimes of damaging wildlife resources, and prevent the cases from being unremoved, the guilty is not investigated, and the punishment is replaced by fines.
Establish a cross-departmental linkage and collaboration mechanism, improve mechanisms for information sharing, clue transfer, joint meetings, etc., report cases in a timely manner, and form a joint effort.
The third is to increase law popularization efforts.
While severely cracking down on crimes, we have also stepped up efforts to interpret the law.
Especially in areas such as nature reserves, wild animal migration areas, habitats, etc., traditional media and new media are used to publicize laws and regulations related to wildlife protection, and create a good atmosphere for wildlife protection.