Chinese procuratorial organs handle over 390,000 environmental, resources public interest cases in 5 yrs

BEIJING, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese procuratorial organs have handled 394,894 cases of public interest concerning environment and resources protection from 2018 to 2022, according to a white paper issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Monday.

The white paper on procuratorial work on environment and resources protection noted that 93.9 percent of the cases were solved before litigation.

In the past five years, procuratorial organs have filed and examined 209,957 criminal cases related to environmental and resources protection, and prosecuted 353,223 individuals involved, according to the white paper.

It added that the charges mainly involved six aspects, i.e. environmental pollution, illegal fishing, illegal mining, illegal occupation of agricultural land, illegal hunting and deforestation.

The white paper noted a downward trend in the number of cases of damaging the ecological environment, but a rise in the total number of cases involving impairing the protection of resources.

Efforts have been made by procuratorial organs in various fields including fighting pollution, promoting ecological protection in the Yangtze River basin, ensuring ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin, and strengthening biodiversity protection, the white paper noted.