Adhering to the concept of ecological civilization to promote the harmonious coexistence between man and nature (adhere to and improve the system of people's congresses)
The wild population of crested ibises has increased from 7 in 1981 to more than 6,000, the wild population of Tibetan antelopes has increased from 70,000 to about 300,000, and the wild horses and elk that once disappeared in the wild have re-established their wild populations...these wild animal populations Recovery is inseparable from the escort of laws and regulations related to wildlife protection over the years.
On December 30, 2022, the 38th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress voted to pass the revised Wildlife Protection Law, which will come into effect on May 1, 2023.
"The revision of the Wildlife Protection Law is to strengthen the protection and restoration of important ecosystems, adhere to the principles of priority protection, standardized utilization, and strict supervision, and actively respond to social concerns." Yue Zhongming, director of the Economic Law Office of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said , The newly revised Wildlife Protection Law further improves the wildlife protection and management system, increases the punishment for illegal acts, and does a good job of connecting with relevant laws such as the Biosecurity Law, Animal Epidemic Prevention Law, and Animal Husbandry Law, and upholds the concept of ecological civilization. Promote green development and promote the harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
scientific legislation, democratic legislation
Adapt to the actual needs of wildlife protection in the new situation
"The journey of elephants in Yunnan to the north and back in 2021 will let the world see the results of our country's wildlife protection." Yue Zhongming introduced that the current Wildlife Protection Law was enacted in 1988 and was amended three times in 2004, 2009 and 2018. It was revised, "The current Wildlife Protection Law has played an important role in strengthening the protection and rescue of wild animals and their habitats, maintaining biodiversity, and promoting the construction of ecological civilization."
From May to July 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress organized the "Decision on Comprehensive Prohibition of Illegal Wildlife Trade, Elimination of Bad Habits of Overeating Wild Animals, and Effective Protection of People's Lives, Health and Safety" and inspections of enforcement of the Wildlife Protection Law.
An important task of this law enforcement inspection is to evaluate the Wildlife Protection Law, collect opinions and suggestions from various parties on the revision of the law, and provide a basis for revising and improving the Wildlife Protection Law.
"It was reflected in many places during the inspection that the current wildlife protection law and supporting administrative regulations and local regulations do not meet the actual needs of wildlife protection under the new situation." The law enforcement inspection report shows that there is a connection between the wildlife protection law and related laws Insufficient and other issues indicate that the relevant legal system needs to be amended and improved urgently.
In this regard, during the revision process of the Wildlife Protection Law, the opinions of all parties were extensively solicited and fully listened to, so as to absorb public opinion to the greatest extent, gather public wisdom, and make scientific decisions.
In October 2020, the 22nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress conducted the first review of the draft amendment to the Wildlife Protection Law.
After the meeting, the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress will issue the revised draft to the people's congresses of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), relevant departments of the central government, deputies to the National People's Congress, research institutions, grassroots legislative contact points, etc. , to solicit public opinion.
In August 2022, the second deliberation draft of the revision draft of the Wildlife Protection Law was submitted to the 36th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberation.
"During the public consultation period after the meeting, a total of 12,057 comments were received from 3,806 members of the public, and 11 letters were received." According to Zang Tiewei, spokesman for the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the public mainly discusses the regulation of artificial breeding of wild animals. Suggestions and suggestions were put forward on , performances, and release of animals, and relevant opinions and suggestions were reflected in the third deliberation draft of the draft.
After the amendment is completed, promoting the implementation of the newly revised Wildlife Protection Law has been put on the agenda.
Yue Zhongming said that the relevant departments of the State Council and localities should speed up the formulation and improvement of relevant supporting regulations, improve the coordination mechanism for joint law enforcement work, strictly enforce the law, strengthen the connection between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice, crack down on illegal and criminal activities in accordance with the law, and achieve ecological environmental protection and high-quality economic development. Win-win.
Respond to social concerns
Strengthen the prevention and control of alien species and refine the control measures for wild animal populations
In recent years, news such as the invasion of alien species and the damage to personal and property safety by wild animals have appeared in the media from time to time, causing social concern.
The revision of the Wildlife Protection Law has also responded positively to these social hot issues.
"The newly revised Wildlife Protection Law clearly stipulates that wild animal species imported from abroad must not be released or discarded illegally. If it is really necessary to release them into the wild, they should abide by the relevant laws and regulations." Where wild animals cause harm to the ecological system, the relevant departments such as the wildlife protection of the people's government at or above the county level shall take corresponding safety control measures.
Xie Yi, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Beijing Forestry University, said that the hazards of alien species are all-round, not only leading to the extinction of local species, changes in the structure and function of ecosystems, degradation, and loss of ecosystem services, but also seriously endangering ecological security and biological security. "We should choose local species that are suitable for living in the wild in the place of release, so as to be able to 'live' because of 'release'."
In this revision of the law, content such as "the department in charge of wildlife protection of the State Council shall, in conjunction with relevant departments of the State Council, strengthen the regulation and guidance of the activities of releasing wild animals" has been added.
"Some members of the public have a good starting point for releasing wild animals, but they must respect the laws of nature and be legal and orderly." Qin Tianbao, director of the Institute of Environmental Law of Wuhan University, said that releasing wild animals at will will cause personal and property damage or harm. Ecosystem, need to bear legal responsibility according to law.
In this revision, the refinement of wild animal population control measures has also become a major attraction.
In recent years, with the continuous improvement of my country's ecological environment, wild boars and other wild animals have flooded in some places, endangering the safety of people's personal property and agricultural and animal husbandry production.
"The root of the problem of wild animal accidents lies in the spatial overlap between the wild animal activity area and the local people's production and living area." Xie Yi said that thanks to my country's continuous emphasis on wildlife protection for many years, the number of wild animal populations continues to grow, but as a key habitat Due to the established area and limited ecological carrying capacity of the natural reserves in the land, such problems are exacerbated.
This revision of the law refines the measures to regulate the population of wild animals. It stipulates that the competent department of wildlife protection of the people's government at or above the county level may, based on the investigation, monitoring and evaluation of wild animals and their habitats, for species whose populations significantly exceed the environmental capacity, may Take population control measures such as ex situ protection and hunting to ensure personal and property safety, ecological safety and agricultural production.
"According to the newly revised Wildlife Protection Law, in an emergency where wild animals endanger personal safety, if measures are taken to cause damage to wild animals, they shall not bear legal responsibility according to law." Qin Tianbao said that the revised Wildlife Protection Law will also The scope of the central government's subsidies for damage prevention and control has been expanded from the national key protected wild animals to other terrestrial wild animals that cause serious damage, "so wild animals such as wild boars are also included."
Consolidate the joint efforts of all parties
Provide direct legal basis for wildlife protection public interest litigation
To do a good job in the implementation of the Wildlife Protection Law requires the joint efforts of all sectors of society.
In recent years, as the public interest litigation system plays an increasingly prominent role in consolidating the joint forces of ecological and environmental protection, the new provisions related to public interest litigation in this amendment are a key step in meeting the needs of practical development and breaking the bottleneck of institutional development.
"Previously, according to laws and regulations such as the Environmental Protection Law, the protection of wild animals has actually been 'implicitly' within the scope of public interest litigation." Qin Tianbao said that the revision of the Wildlife Protection Law is clearly for the prosecution It provides a direct legal basis for government agencies to carry out public interest litigation on wildlife protection, and it is also conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of relevant social organizations to carry out public interest litigation on wildlife protection.
Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve (hereinafter referred to as Tangjiahe Reserve) is an important habitat for giant pandas and belongs to the Minshan area of the Giant Panda National Park established in January 2019.
Since 2015, a mutton sheep farm in Qingchuan County, Sichuan Province, and villager Han Moumou have been grazing illegally in the Tangjiahe Reserve for a long time, destroying the ecological environment of giant pandas and the wild animals and plants they protect. The above-mentioned violations have been reported in writing to the relevant competent authorities many times, but the problem has not been resolved.
In May 2020, the Qingchuan County Procuratorate discovered clues to the case when it took the initiative to visit the county's nature reserves, filed an administrative public interest lawsuit, and urged the administrative department to perform its duties according to law.
At the same time, the procuratorate took into account the protection of the ecological environment of the nature reserve and the legitimate rights and interests of farmers, and urged the party committee and the government to hold a special meeting to study and deploy compensation for farmers to withdraw from the nature reserve, and guide the original residents of the nature reserve to use existing resources to develop rural revitalization industries. Key projects, paid participation in national park management.
"This case is the first procuratorial public interest litigation case for the protection of giant panda habitats in China, which highlights the positive role of the procuratorial public interest litigation system in promoting the construction of national parks." Hu Weilie, Director of the Public Interest Litigation Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, introduced that since 2020 , procuratorial organs across the country have filed and handled more than 20,000 public interest litigation cases on biodiversity protection, involving not only terrestrial and aquatic wild animals and plants protected by the state, but also animal habitats, nature reserves, and the prevention and control of invasive alien species. Protection of important local biological populations, etc.
"Now that public interest litigation clauses are included in the Wildlife Protection Law, it will help to further strengthen the cooperation between the procuratorial organs and forestry and grassland, agriculture and rural areas, ecological environment and other departments in wildlife protection, and form a joint force for public welfare protection." Hu Weilie He said that in the next step, the procuratorial organs will conduct in-depth investigations into the handling of public interest litigation cases in the field of wildlife protection, formulate relevant case handling guidelines, and guide procuratorial organs at all levels to standardize the handling of such public interest litigation cases.
Layout design: Cai Huawei
Our reporter Zhang Cong