Customs officers seize dried geckos during an operation to crack down on wildlife smuggling on Thursday. Twelve suspects were captured, with 20.3 metric tons of wild animal products detained on site. (HAN JIANQUAN / CHINA DAILY)

Chinese prosecutors have been urged to play a bigger role in the supervision of public interest litigation against illegal consumption of wild animals to better protect wildlife and the ecology, China's top procuratorate said.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate highlighted a series of cases related to the illegal wildlife trade after the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak, which is believed to have originated in wild animals, and has guided relevant provincial prosecutors to solve them through public interest litigation, according to Zhang Xueqiao, deputy procurator-general of the SPP.

Wild animal protection belongs to the field of environmental protection, because wildlife as resources also relates to the environmental and ecological security of areas where they live

Zhang Xueqiao, deputy procurator-general of the SPP

Public interest litigation covers environmental protection, food and drug safety, preservation of State assets and the transfer of land rights under Chinese laws.

The laws allow prosecutors to initiate lawsuits to further ensure the public interest against administrators or individuals in an effort to pressure them into correcting improper behavior.

Under the laws, prosecutors can also send prelitigation suggestions to administrative departments before they initiate such lawsuits if correction of improper behavior is sought. If the agencies fail to rectify the problems, litigation will be launched.

"Wild animal protection belongs to the field of environmental protection, because wildlife as resources also relates to the environmental and ecological security of areas where they live," Zhang said, adding that handling such cases via public interest litigation could improve legal efficiency as prosecutors, rather than individuals or organizations, are better at investigation.

He said the SPP has ordered prosecuting authorities to tighten supervision on wildlife-related illegal activities and lax law enforcement by sending procuratorial suggestions or launching public interest litigation to strictly implement a recent decision on banning the consumption of wild animals.

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On Feb 24, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress-the country's top legislature-made the decision to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade and comprehensively ban the consumption of such animals.

The decision, with immediate effect, called for tough penalties for the hunting, trading and transportation of protected wild animals, as well as wild terrestrial animals hunted, traded or transported for purposes of consumption.

In one case, for example, prosecutors from Yingtan, Jiangxi province, sent a prelitigation suggestion to the city's forestry bureau in March 2018 after the administration was reportedly ignoring two people who were illegally transporting wild animals at a railway station.

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The prosecutors said in the suggestion that the bureau did not do its duty in regards to wildlife supervision. They urged the bureau to deal with the illegal transport as soon as possible and also demand it to conduct a thorough inspection on such activities across the city.

After being pressed by the prosecuting authority, the bureau quickly issued administrative punishment against the two people and organized the city's relevant administrations, including the forest police and market regulation departments, to conduct inspections in farmers markets, restaurants, railway and bus stations and on highways.

Zhang said the epidemic has helped the public and authorities reach an agreement on fighting wildlife-related illegal activities while protecting such animals.

"We'll support prosecutors to continue efforts in handling such cases through public interest litigation," he added.