Protecting biodiversity in the name of law [Yunnan Simao court explores a new model of litigation source governance and environmental protection]
□ Our reporter Shi Fei
The panoramic documentary of a group of wild Asian elephants in Yunnan "going north and returning south" last year attracted the attention of the world, but Tuo Wenbing, a villager who lives in Nanbanghe Village, Paozhangshan Village Committee, Liushun Town, Simao District, Pu'er City, Yunnan Province, has mixed feelings. Because his cornfield has been "patronized" by wild Asian elephants for several years.
Pu'er City is an oasis with the most complete ecological preservation and richest biological species on the Tropic of Cancer. With sufficient sunshine and abundant rainfall, it has become a living paradise for wild Asian elephants.
At present, there are more than 300 Asian elephants in the country, and about 189 live in Simao District, Pu'er City all the year round. Among them, 119 live in the area all year round, involving 128 villager groups in 6 townships and becoming "neighbors" with more than 23,000 villagers. ".
However, the "destruction" brought by these "neighbors" is not small. The phenomenon of damage to farmers' cash crops and houses often occurs, causing trouble to the local people.
In order to effectively protect the rights and interests of the villagers and promote the protection of wild Asian elephants, on March 9, 2022, the Simao District People's Court of Pu'er City, relying on the Simao Port Court, was stationed at the "Asian Elephant Breeding Center" in Mengzhu Village, Nanbanghe Village Committee, Liushun Town. The first "Human Elephant Harmony Legal Service Point" was listed and established, and a one-stop mediation work platform was established to move forward the work of Asian elephant protection and judicial services, and to resolve disputes as far as possible at the front end.
This is a vivid epitome of the Simao District Court's exploration of a new model for the harmonious coexistence of judicial litigation source governance and environmental resource protection.
In recent years, the court has continuously strengthened the judicial protection of biodiversity, promoted the harmony between people and elephants, escorted the ecological environment of the Lancang River, protected the local ancient tea tree resources, protected the beauty of biodiversity with judicial power, and polished the brand of ecological judicial services.
"Protecting and making good use of Simao's excellent ecological environment and unique biological resources is the responsibility of the Simao District Court to benefit human beings with judicial power and help people and nature coexist in harmony." Mi Sizhe, President of Simao District Court, recently accepted " A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily said in an interview.
Elephant protection and benefits for the people are promoted simultaneously
Harmonious coexistence between man and nature
The reporter learned that, relying on the Simao Port Court, the "Human-image Harmony Legal Service Point" has gathered relevant units such as the Procuratorate, Judicial Bureau, Forestry and Grass Bureau, Liushun Town Party Committee and Government, insurance industry associations, insurance companies, and social mediation forces to form a diverse solution. Together, they are committed to building a judicial protection mechanism for the ecological environment, and to do a good job in the connection between compensation for wildlife accidents and multiple dispute resolution, so as to ensure that both individual legitimate rights and interests and environmental public interests are effectively protected.
In the early stage of the listing, the Simao District Court conducted on-the-spot investigations on issues such as environmental resource protection, human-elephant disputes, and elephant damage compensation, and sorted out three types of villagers who were most concerned and most concerned about the lack of compensation and claims settlement, difficulty in proving losses, and lack of personnel to determine damages. Claims that need to be addressed.
After repeated coordination by multiple parties, a mediation work meeting was held. In April this year, 86 cases for which damages had been determined and yet to be settled were sorted out, with a claim amount of more than 340,000 yuan.
Up to now, the Simao District Court has cashed more than 1 million yuan in compensation for 414 farmers through docking with insurance companies.
"The compensation for the 5 mu of cornfields damaged by the wild elephant herd in 2021 has been fully paid. The compensation of 3,600 yuan not only makes up for the loss of our crops in time, but also gives us more confidence in the future." Tuo Wenbing said that since he can remember, the villagers have lived on the same land as the Asian elephant herds, and people have kept them at a distance. Over the years, the elephant herds have built up trust with humans, but the outward movement and migration of the elephant herds will inevitably damage the farmers’ livelihood. Economic crops have caused a series of losses to the villagers.
Liu Jidong, a villager in the same village as Tuo Wenbing, has been a "neighbor" with the wild Asian elephant herd for 46 years, and he feels the same, "The villagers all know to respect and protect the wild elephant herd, but after the loss is really caused, there will still be conflicts and disputes. , it is not clear how to solve it in accordance with the law.”
Today, the establishment of the "Human-Xiang Harmony Legal Service Point" not only fundamentally solves the difficulties of the villagers in resolving disputes, but also brings more legal knowledge to the villagers.
Liu Xiaoling, president of the Simao Port Court of Simao District Court, told reporters that the smooth development of human-image harmony legal services has further promoted the resolution of human-image disputes, and solved the problems raised by the common people, such as difficulty in producing evidence and contract specifications for damage-assessing personnel. The legal knowledge of wildlife protection is brought into the village to better realize the harmonious coexistence between humans and animals.
"In the name of the law, protect the homeland of the elephant and promote the harmonious coexistence between man and nature. While protecting the biodiversity of Pu'er with judicial power, we will bring more legal knowledge to the masses." Simao District Court Deputy Court Chang Mouwei said that the listing of the first "Human-Elephant Harmony Legal Service Point" in China is a vivid practice of the people's courts to strengthen judicial protection of biodiversity, and is also a useful exploration of deepening the construction of a one-stop multi-dispute resolution mechanism.
Extended judicial service functions
Ecological economy win-win symbiosis
There are two treasures in Cizhulin Village, Simaogang Town, Simao District: tea and birds.
There is the only ancient tea garden in Simao District in Lao'an Village, where the villagers live with the mountains and live with tea.
The protection of ancient tree tea not only creates a beautiful ecological homeland with green mountains and clear waters, but also brings considerable economic benefits to local villagers.
Mangba, a village of the Blang ethnic group not far from here, is named "Parrot Village" because of the habitat of more than 700 national second-class protected birds - the large purple-breasted parrot.
In addition, there are more than 200 kinds of birds such as crested bee eagles and silk crested birds, and more than 20 kinds of wild animals such as bison and red deer living here.
Relying on good ecological resources, the local "bird watching economy" and rural tourism have become increasingly popular in recent years.
At the same time, local conflicts and disputes involving mountains, forests, water and soil have gradually increased.
In order to increase the protection of biodiversity, the Simao District Court further extended its judicial service functions on the basis of its experience in carrying out legal services for human-image harmony. Actively coordinate with the party committee, government, judicial office, police station, forestry station, and Cizhulin Village Committee of Simaogang Town, and on July 7, 2022, jointly signed the "Parrot Village of Lao'anzhai Ancient Tea Tree and Mangba in Simaogang Town" "Judicial Service Agreement", which integrates litigation source governance, environmental resource trial and judicial service work into the grass-roots governance system.
According to Mu Wei, according to the agreement, all parties to the contract will make use of their respective advantages to vigorously carry out judicial services such as circuit trials, litigation and mediation docking, legal publicity, etc., to realize information sharing, resource sharing, and platform co-construction, and jointly promote the industrial development of the area. , eco-tourism and biodiversity protection, and promote the formation of a good situation of social governance under the rule of law, rural revitalization, consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation, boosting the construction of "litigation-free" villages, and optimizing the business environment under the rule of law.
"We want to spread the ancient tree tea brand in the stockade, so that more people can taste ancient tree tea, and we also want to attract more tourists to play with the beautiful ecological environment of Parrot Village, increase the income of ordinary people, buy and sell tea, develop In tea cooperation and natural ecological protection, without legal guidance and protection, we will suffer losses, and we are very grateful to the court for considering so much for us." Xiong Kairong, deputy director of Cizhulin Village Committee, Simaogang Town, sincerely praised the court's approach.
Improve the linkage protection mechanism
Build a multi-faceted co-governance pattern
According to Mi Sizhe, at present, the Simao District Court takes the human-image harmonious legal service as the breakthrough point, further strengthens the overall planning and promotes the establishment of the "Fengqiao-style People's Court" in the new era, strengthens the construction of specialized systems, and establishes criminal, civil, and environmental resources. The "three-in-one" environmental resource trial of administrative cases comprehensively improves the professional level of environmental resource trial, further integrates judicial resources, promotes harmony between human and elephant with judicial power, opens up a new situation in environmental protection governance, and continuously enhances people's sense of gain and happiness sense of security.
It is understood that since 2019, the Simao District Court has adhered to the specialization of environmental resources trials as the starting point, firmly established the concept of environmental justice, and continuously improved the level of environmental resources trials, and concluded a total of 309 cases involving environmental resources.
By summarizing and improving the working experience of the Simao District Court in exploring the combination of litigation source governance and environmental resources trial, and strengthening the judicial protection of biodiversity, the Intermediate People's Court of Pu'er City actively explores new paths for judicial protection of biodiversity, and penetrates the judicial tentacles into the grassroots society. In the governance, with the support of the people's courts of the grassroots courts, and the path of "one county, one characteristic" and "one court, one characteristic", combined with the biodiversity characteristics of various regions under the jurisdiction, through the coordination and linkage protection mechanism, the establishment of multiple co-governance workstations and legal service points .
At present, Pu'er City has established the "Legal Service Point for the Protection of Wild Ancient Tea Tree Community" in Zhenyuan County, the "Legal Service Point for the Protection of Magnolia Fossils" in Jinggu County, and the "Legal Service Point for the Protection of Western Black-crowned Gibbons" in Jingdong County. The legal service point promotes the concept of ecological justice to take root in the villages through various forms such as circuit trials, publicity of the rule of law, and joint law enforcement.
"We need to integrate the tentacles of justice into grassroots social governance, form a hierarchical and progressive dispute resolution path with source prevention, non-litigation first, diversified resolution, and separation of complex and simple disputes, and build a new pattern of social governance in the field of ecological protection, which will be formed in Pu'er. A brand of judicial protection with radiation." Li Hongyun, President of Pu'er Intermediate Court, said that by deepening the one-stop construction, Pu'er Court has established a normalized communication and linkage mechanism with local party committees and governments, and established a biological and environmental protection department. Diversity protection joint conference system, to fully discuss issues such as difficulties in law enforcement and justice, connection mechanism construction and environmental resource protection cooperation mechanism construction, so as to improve the synergistic effect of ecological environmental resource protection and governance.
(The Rule of Law Daily, October 12, 2022, version 04)