Local courts prove crucial to environment protection

On Nov 16, the local dual-carbon circuit court of Dongshan County People's Court, Fujian province, solved an environmental damage case involving a man surnamed Deng who illegally caught fish during a fishing ban period. At the judge's judicial interpretation, the defendant was willing to buy 2,773.3 tons of ocean carbon sink at the price of 15,600 yuan ($2,272.92), so as to mend his damage done to the ocean.

That's only one of the cases of local courts contributing to the nation's "dual-carbon" goal in Fujian province. By allowing those who did damage to the environment to buy carbon sink as a reimbursement, Fujian courts have not only helped to further cut carbon emissions, but also spread the sense of the "dual-carbon" goal among the public.

Two years after the nation raised its "dual-carbon" goal, every sector involved is mobilizing resources to support it. The role of the judiciary branch should not be underestimated.

Another measure they have taken is to organize the illegally obtained sea sand to be put back into the sea. In March 2020, the Dongshan court found a man surnamed Lin guilty of illegally mining sea sand without a permit and sentenced him seven months in jail, while the sand his team mined and the money he obtained by selling them were both confiscated.

The case could have ended there, with the criminal having received his deserved legal penalty. However, the local courts believed they could have done more to contribute to the "dual carbon" goal, so they organized to put the unsold sand back to the sea so as to mend the damages done to the environment. On April 13, 2021, they organized putting 7,800 cubic meters of confiscated sand back to the sea, making the total volume of sand put back reach 13,000 cubic meters, being listed as one of the Top 10 ecological mending modes recommended by the province in 2021.

Zhangzhou city of Fujian province, to which Dongshan is an affiliated county, has many such measures. In June 2020, the Zhangzhou Intermediate People's Court had introduced a system of ecological environment technological surveyor, the first in the country, according to which they hire experts to participate in the whole judicial process so as to be more professional in such cases.

In November 2021, the Dongshan County People's court sentenced two defendants guilty for fishing with illegal electric fishing devices. Jiang Zhongxi, a senior engineer at and director of the municipal ocean environmental monitoring center participated in the whole process as the technological surveyor, during which he proved the effects of illegal electric devices on oceanic biodiversity.

The two defendants were found guilty and given reprieves, while also ordered to pay for the fish they killed with illegal electric devices. The money was then spent on buying fish fries to put back.

At the annual session of National People's Congress (NPC) in 2022, Lun Luanmei, a professor at Minnan Normal University and a NPC deputy, gave advice to expand the ecological environment technological surveyor system nationwide. "As a research fellow, I have direct feelings about the system and they have provided rich cases for us to study."

With a mainland coastal line of 715 kms and an island coastal line of 90 kms, Zhangzhou ranks 9th overall in the nation's coastal line, which grants it rich oceanic carbon sink, or more commonly known as blue oceanic carbon sink resources.

Guided by the "dual-carbon" philosophy, the courts in the city have paid ample attention to carbon cutting in their judicial processes. In December 2021, the Longhai District People's Court mediated between the villagers and their local village committee in a dispute over how much the latter should compensate for ending the previous contract on allowing the former to farm on the intertidal zones, as this contract could not continue as the Zhangzhou municipal city banned the practice in the Jiulong River delta to protect local red forests.

As red forests are part of the local carbon-cutting system, the court invited judicial mediators as well as experts to explain the compensation standards and the importance of the job to both sides. The villagers soon reached an agreement with the committee.

The Zhangzhou Intermediate People's Court also worked with the same-level courts of Xiamen, Quanzhou and Longyan cities, so as to coordinate protection of the Jiulong River basin's environment as a whole. On the upper level, Fujian province has set five centralized jurisdiction courts, 77 professional courts, 153 circuit courts plus one judicial practice base to help protect the environment, so as to cover the whole province.

"Next our court will further cooperate with colleges to improve the ocean carbon sink reimbursement system, so as to strengthen protection of the carbon and contribute to Fujian's development as a coastal province," said Wu Yuanxiang, president and Party chief of Zhangzhou Intermediate People's Court.

The contribution local courts could make to realizing the "dual-carbon" goal earlier can be expected.