China Releases Cases of Environmental Violations to Enforce Protection

China's natural resources and forestry departments have jointly released 21 examples of illegal activities uncovered during law enforcement supervision in the second quarter of this year. The aim is to encourage all regions to learn from these cases and reinforce the importance of protecting farmland and the environment.

The 21 cases, announced by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, span 16 provinces. They encompass a range of violations, including the illegal use and damage of arable land, unauthorized mining, deforestation, and even instances of falsifying information to avoid scrutiny.

One specific case involved a villager in Liaoning province who illegally deposited tailings on 1.65 hectares of permanent basic farmland beginning in March 2023. This action led to a decline in the quality and degradation of the black soil farmland in the area.

The departments also highlighted instances of inadequate enforcement by local governments. For example, a township government in Fujian's Zhangzhou failed to properly address the illegal occupation of 3.14 hectares of permanent basic farmland.

In this particular case, over 70 percent of the arable land had been continuously used by a local stone slab factory and nearby villagers for disposing of waste stone slag and garbage since 2012. The remaining portion served as a sand and gravel dumping site, with improper authorization from the village committee since 2022. Despite some attempts at remediation, the efforts were deemed insufficient, with some waste materials remaining uncleared and others simply covered with soil.

The departments have pledged to continue monitoring, supervising, and reporting on the progress of rectification efforts in these cases. Furthermore, they plan to issue quarterly announcements in the future to strengthen oversight, improve long-term mechanisms, and uphold the critical boundaries of farmland and ecological protection, as well as legal and policy regulations.