On June 5, the Supreme Procuratorate issued a "typical case of public interest litigation for the protection of ecological environment and resources", including the case of the People's Procuratorate of Panji District, Huainan City, Anhui Province v. the Forestry Bureau of Huainan City and the Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau of Panji District, Huainan City.
It is reported that Nihe Provincial Wetland Park (hereinafter referred to as Nihe Wetland) in Panji District, Huainan City, Anhui Province, with a total area of more than 40000 mu, was listed as the first batch of important wetlands in Anhui Province in 2017. There are many problems in Nihe wetland, such as illegal construction of photovoltaic projects, illegal breeding of surrounding residents, random accumulation of domestic waste, and serious pollution of wetland waters, which lead to the continuous deterioration of wetland ecological environment. The outstanding ecological environment problems
of Nihe Wetland were repeatedly inspected and notified by the central and provincial ecological environment protection inspection teams in 2022 and 2023, but they have not yet been rectified. In February
2024, relying on the "government inspection linkage" mechanism, the Panji District River Chief System Office of Huainan City transferred the clues to the Panji District Procuratorate of Huainan City. After reporting to the Huainan Procuratorate for research and designation of jurisdiction, the court filed cases with the Huainan Forestry Bureau and the Panji District Urban Administration and Law Enforcement Bureau of Huainan City in March of the same year. Investigation by
procuratorial organs found that there were four photovoltaic projects in Nihe Wetland, which occupied nearly 3400 mu of wetland area. More than 7,200 mu of wetland area is occupied; in addition, there are also problems such as illegal building of houses and random dumping and accumulation of domestic garbage, which lead to serious over-standard detection of major pollutants such as chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, total phosphorus and total nitrogen in wetland waters, black and smelly water quality, and serious damage to wetland ecological environment. In April
2024, the Panji District Procuratorate convened a round table of forestry, urban management, environmental protection and other departments to clarify regulatory responsibilities. After continuous investigation and consultation, the Panji District Procuratorate issued procuratorial suggestions to the Municipal Forestry Bureau and the District Urban Administration Bureau in the same month, suggesting that the two departments take effective measures to stop the destruction of the wetland ecological environment. In May of
the same year, in June, the Municipal Forestry Bureau and the District Urban Administration Bureau successively responded that they had made rectifications. Among them, the Forestry Bureau said that it would consult with the relevant administrative organs to study the rectification measures and actively promote the work of purse Seine and photovoltaic demolition.
However, in July 2024, on-site investigation by Panji District Procuratorate showed that photovoltaic panels , aquaculture purse seines and illegal houses in Nihe Wetland had not been completely demolished. On July 26 and August 8, 2024, the Panji District Procuratorate filed an administrative public interest lawsuit with the Panji District Court of Huainan City, with the District Urban Administration Bureau and the Municipal Forestry Bureau as the defendants, requesting that the two defendants be ordered to continue to perform their duties.
During the trial of the case, the Municipal Forestry Bureau actively rectified, strengthened supervision and guidance, and urged the competent forestry authorities in Panji District to carry out the rectification in a closed-loop manner. The District Urban Management Bureau has actively cooperated with the local township streets to clean up the garbage for many times, and has made every effort to dismantle the illegal construction and fence around the river. At the end of August
2024, the procuratorate of Panji District, relying on the mechanism of "government inspection linkage", cooperated with the ecological environment department to carry out professional testing on the water pollution control of Nihe Wetland, which showed that the main pollutant indicators of the water body had been greatly reduced and the ecological environment of Nihe Wetland had been significantly improved. In November of the same year, the rectification of outstanding ecological environment problems in Nihe Wetland passed the inspection and acceptance of ecological environment protection supervision in Anhui Province, and the sales number was publicized. In view of the fact that the litigation requests of the procuratorial organs have been fully realized and the public interest has been effectively safeguarded, the Panji District Court decided to terminate the litigation in the two cases on January 3 and 7 , 2025, respectively.