Buying and selling ivory products and spoke tortoises? These three civil public interest litigation cases involving wildlife protection were pronounced in court

Qingdao Daily/Guanhai News, December 1, 2019 This morning, the Qingdao Municipal People's Procuratorate held a trial of three civil public interest litigation cases involving wildlife protection, and all 7 defendants admitted compensation and accepted punishment, and the Qingdao Intermediate People's Court made a centralized judgment in court, all supporting the procuratorial organs' litigation requests. Some npc deputies and CPPCC members attended the hearing, and two experts and professors from Shandong University appeared in court to provide professional opinions and accept professional consultations.

Case 1: Civil public interest litigation case for illegal purchase and sale of ivory products

Li mou runs a cultural play stall in Licun Night Market, mainly selling cultural and play items such as bodhi and beeswax, and also illegally selling ivory products, rhino horn and other wildlife products through the circle of friends. Defendants Ma X and Wang X successively purchased ivory jewelry plates and ivory bracelets from Li X, and voluntarily handed over 7 pieces of suspected ivory jewelry after the incident. According to the shandong provincial forest public security judicial appraisal center, the 7 ivory products seized were all products of asian elephants or African elephants in the proboscis family (living ivory). On July 23, 2021, the Laoshan District People's Court of Qingdao Municipality rendered a criminal judgment, finding Wang X, Li X and Ma X guilty of endangering precious and endangered wild animals.

Asian elephants are nationally protected wild animals, african elephants are listed as endangered species of wild animals and plants, and since December 31, 2017, China has completely stopped commercial processing and sales of ivory and products. In the context of the state's vigorous advocacy of the construction of ecological civilization, although the defendants Wang X, Li X and Ma X did not directly carry out the act of hunting wild animals, their illegal acquisition and sale of wild animal products breeds the occurrence of illegal hunting of wild animals, resulting in the loss of wildlife and animal resources, thereby threatening the safety of the ecological environment and biodiversity, and harming the social public interest. In this case, Mr. Li and Mr. Ma respectively carried out the act of acquiring and selling ivory products, and Mr. Wang carried out the act of purchasing ivory products from Mr. Li and Mr. Ma, and should bear the corresponding civil tort liability according to law.

The total weight of the ivory products involved in the case is 0. 2175 kg, the total value of the case is 9062 yuan, in view of the three people's purchase quantity does not completely coincide, the procuratorate entrusted the Qingdao Municipal Public Security Bureau Laoshan Branch Forest Police Brigade to weigh separately, and came up with the three defendants should bear the amount of ivory product value losses.

After trial, the court ordered Wang xx, Li X and Ma X to compensate for the loss of the value of 3 ivory products of 4771 yuan in accordance with the law, and the three of them bear joint and several liability; in accordance with the law, Wang X and Li X were ordered to compensate for the loss of the value of 4 pieces of ivory products of 4291 yuan, and the two people were jointly and severally liable.

Case 2: Civil public interest litigation case of illegal trade in auxiliary tortoises

From the end of 2018 to May 2019, Yu X successively purchased tortoises through the Network, because so-and-so did not have a breeding box, so he let the upper family directly mail to his friend Wang's residence by mail to raise them on his behalf, Wang mou knew that the tortoises purchased by so-and-so were precious and endangered wild animals and still helped him receive and raise them, and after the tortoise died, Wang provided the public security organs with two shells in the above-mentioned dead tortoises. One of the tortoise shells involved in the case was identified by the Forest Public Security Judicial Appraisal Center of the State Forestry Administration as a spoke tortoise, which belongs to a species that clearly prohibits international trade, and is a national first-class protected animal after being graded according to China's key protected wild animals.

Although the animals involved in the case are alien species, the ecology has no borders, and wild animals are an inseparable part of the earth's community of life, and their normal reproduction is the basis for the sustainable development of the earth's ecological environment. The illegal acquisition of rare and endangered wild animals by Mr. Yu and the illegal breeding and death of endangered wild animals have infringed on wildlife resources, affected the regional ecological balance of wildlife habitats, threatened ecological environment safety and biodiversity, reduced the possibility of endangered species breeding and breeding, and damaged the social public interest. Since the other one could not be identified and its species could not be identified, the procuratorial organ entrusted experts to issue an expert opinion on the permanent loss assessment of the ecological environment service function on a secondary tortoise in accordance with the law, and determined that Yu X and Wang X endangered a precious and endangered wild animal of the auxiliary tortoise, resulting in a loss of 15,000 yuan in ecological service functions.

According to the procurator in charge, in this case, Yu X carried out the act of acquiring the country's precious and endangered wild animals, and Wang X helped the tortoises in the case to raise them even though he knew that the tortoises involved in the case were national key protected animals and did not have a breeding license, and the subjective aspects of the two people constituted the intention of jointly infringing on wildlife resources, and jointly led to the occurrence of the damage result of the death of the tortoise, and should bear joint and several liability.

After the trial, the court ordered Yu X and Wang X to compensate a spoke tortoise for the loss of ecological environment service function of 15,000 yuan in accordance with the law, and the two people bear joint and several liability for compensation.

Case 3: Civil public interest litigation case of illegal acquisition and sale of serval cats

In August 2019, Mr. Wang purchased a rare and endangered wild animal serval cat from Zhao Moumou at a price of 56,000 yuan through network contact and express delivery, and was later caught and the serval cat was seized. The serval cat was purchased by Zhao moumou from Russia for 6800 US dollars, and then shipped back to China for 56000 yuan and sold to Wang moumou. Identified by the Forest Public Security Forensic Appraisal Center of the State Forestry Administration, it belongs to the feline family Felidae and is listed in Appendix II of the CITES Convention (2019), and is managed in China with reference to the national second-level protected animals. On September 17, 2021, the Shinan District People's Court of Qingdao Municipality rendered a criminal judgment, sentencing Mr. Wang to three months' detention, suspended for six months, and fined 10,000 yuan for illegally selling rare and endangered wild animals, and sentenced Mr. Zhao to three months' detention, suspended for six months, and fined 10,000 yuan and returned 56,000 yuan of illegal gains.

Serval cats are alien species, mammalian cats, mainly distributed in Africa, not generally understood domestic pet cats, but wild big cats in the same family as tigers, lions and leopards, at the top of the food chain, which plays an important role in regulating ecosystem balance and biodiversity and ecosystem quality. The illegal acquisition and sale of Wang X and Zhao X promote the illegal introduction and breeding of the species, which will adversely affect the local ecological environment and biodiversity, infringe on the social public interest, and may lead to the permanent loss and irreparability of the unique genetic information of the species, affecting the integrity of the biological ecological structure and the biological ecological balance.

Since the smuggled alien species do not have the possibility of being released into nature, in order to prevent the damage from expanding, the serval cat involved is currently in foster care in Qingdao Forest Wildlife World. According to the expert opinion issued by Professor Zhang Zhiguo of the Institute of Ecological and Environmental Damage Appraisal of Shandong University, the cost of foster care of the serval cat in this case was 1687. 49 yuan, the loss of ecological environment service function is 18093. 75 yuan.

After trial, the court ordered Wang xxx and Zhao xx to compensate the wildlife involved in the case for 1687. 49 yuan and ecological environment service function loss of 18093. 75 yuan, according to law, Wang xxx, Zhao xxx, paid 3,000 yuan in expert opinion fees.

Procurator handling the case-

With people's continuous pursuit of a better life, raising pets and collecting literature and playing have become a common phenomenon. However, before breeding and collecting, we must know more about the animal, and firmly say "no" to wild animals or their products protected by the state or of unknown origin. The three cases sued by the public interest litigation prosecutors involved illegal purchase, illegal sale, and illegal breeding of rare and endangered wild animals or their products in the country, and the defendants involved in the case faced both criminal and civil penalties. In particular, the serval cats and spoke tortoises involved in the case are all alien species, and at present, the invasion of alien species has become a major problem threatening national biosecurity, and on April 15, 2021, the Biosecurity Law of the People's Republic of China was officially implemented, further strengthening the prevention and response to the invasion of foreign species. Starting from the national biosecurity and the protection of biodiversity, it is necessary to continuously improve the awareness of biosecurity, and must not introduce, release or discard alien species without approval; do not buy novelty, special-shaped pets, etc. when shopping online. Maintaining biosecurity and protecting biodiversity is everyone's responsibility!

Qingdao Intermediate People's Court Case Handling Judge——

Biodiversity is an important foundation for human survival and development. Strengthening biodiversity conservation is the consensus of the international community and an important part of China's ecological civilization construction. The three cases heard this time are all civil public interest litigation cases involving biodiversity conservation.

These three cases involve "living bodies", "dead bodies" and "products" of wild animals, how to determine the ecological losses in the three cases, which type of losses belong to under Article 1235 of the Civil Code, and how to deal with live serval cats is the focus of our consideration. In the case of the serval cat, because the serval cat is an exotic species, in order to avoid adverse effects on the domestic ecological and environmental system, it is not suitable for release in China, so it is fostered and rescued in Qingdao Forest Wildlife World. Therefore, in addition to the loss of ecological environment service functions, foster care costs are also incurred. The secondary tortoise is dead, but it can be determined that it is a complete individual, so according to expert opinions, the ecological and environmental service function loss of the spoke tortoise is determined with reference to documents such as the Catalogue of Benchmark Values of Terrestrial Wild Animals. Ivory products are difficult to determine the population and habitat of the hunted elephants, and whether the ivory is cut from an elephant, so with reference to the "Notice of the State Forestry Administration on Issuing the Value Standards of Smuggled Ivory and Its Products in Criminal Cases of Destroying Wildlife Resources" and other relevant provisions, the loss of ecological and environmental service functions in this case is determined by comparison with the loss of the value of ivory products.

Concentrate on three civil public interest litigation cases involving biodiversity conservation, and punish infringements that endanger biodiversity through adjudication in accordance with law, and advocate that citizens can recognize the importance of biodiversity and participate in the protection of biodiversity. (Qingdao Daily/Guanhai News Reporter Dai Qian Correspondent Bai Shuwen Zhang Tian Lv Ling Wang Dong)