Dual-track mechanism enables better resolution of environmental problems

China's procuratorial public interest litigation system has become a key legal instrument for ecological and environmental protection, helping resolve long-standing governance problems through legal supervision, administrative coordination and judicial accountability, according to a senior prosecutor.

Since the system was fully implemented in 2017, procuratorates nationwide have handled more than 600,000 environmental public interest litigation cases, accounting for 47 percent of all such cases, Zhang Xueqiao, deputy prosecutor-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, told China Daily.

Unlike traditional adversarial litigation, the system does not replace administrative authorities, Zhang said. Instead, procuratorates perform legal supervision through litigation-related procedures and urge government departments at all levels to fulfill their statutory duties.

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Before filing lawsuits, procuratorates typically communicate with the relevant authorities and issue procuratorial recommendations. More than 95 percent of public interest damage cases are resolved before they reach the court. If an authority fails to act, procuratorates may file an administrative public interest lawsuit. If ecological damage remains unrepaired after the authority has fulfilled its duties, they may also initiate a civil public interest lawsuit to hold violators accountable for restoration and compensation.

Zhang said China's model has a distinctive institutional design. While some countries allow prosecutors to bring civil public interest lawsuits, few have established a systematic administrative public interest litigation system. China has developed a dual-track mechanism whereby administrative and civil public interest litigation operate in parallel, with administrative litigation serving as the primary approach.

River basin and marine governance has become one of the system's major priorities.

According to Zhang, basin governance is a global challenge because it spans administrative boundaries, involves multiple jurisdictions and requires coordination among various government departments, often resulting in fragmented responsibilities.

To address these challenges, procuratorates have targeted weak cross-regional coordination, inadequate interdepartmental cooperation and inconsistent enforcement standards in major river basins. The SPP has directly handled or guided landmark cases involving the Wanfeng Lake, Nansi Lake, ship pollution along the Yangtze River, water governance in the Pearl River Basin and marine ecological protection in the Bohai Sea.

Those cases have promoted coordinated action among procuratorates at the national, provincial, city and county levels, helping resolve long-standing environmental problems affecting large areas and attracting widespread public concern, Zhang said.

The SPP has also established regional coordination mechanisms aligned with major national development strategies. In the Yangtze River Basin, 19 provincial-level procuratorates and relevant city-level procuratorates have established 21 cross-regional coordination mechanisms covering all river sections along provincial boundaries. The SPP and the Ministry of Water Resources have also established a Yellow River Basin coordination platform to facilitate information transfers, case handling, information sharing and consultations among nine provinces and autonomous regions.

Despite the progress, Zhang acknowledged that cross-regional and cross-basin governance still faces challenges, including inadequate information sharing, the technical complexity of evidence collection, and inconsistent standards between administrative law enforcement and judicial rulings.

He said procuratorates will strengthen cooperation with administrative authorities, focus on major river basins and key regional ecological issues, and make better use of direct case handling by the SPP and provincial procuratorates to bridge governance gaps between upstream and downstream areas and between opposite riverbanks.

Since March 2025, the SPP has launched a two-year supervision campaign on water environment governance covering the Yangtze, Yellow and Pearl rivers. Procuratorates are also focusing on industrial solid waste, mine restoration, soil pollution, livestock breeding pollution, and water and soil conservation.

The system has also supported green and low-carbon development. By May this year, procuratorates nationwide had handled 57,000 related cases involving green spatial planning, industrial transformation and urban-rural green development.

New technology

Professional assessment has long been a challenge in ecological cases because environmental damage appraisals are often costly, time-consuming and technically demanding.

To address the issue, the SPP and the Ministry of Justice have expanded the network of environmental damage appraisal institutions and promoted an "appraisal first, payment later" model, with 141 partner institutions now participating.

Nearly 500 ecological testing laboratories have been established at procuratorates nationwide, achieving full coverage at the city level. The SPP has also created a national database of more than 800 technical experts, while 28 provincial-level procuratorates have established their own expert databases.

Digital technology is increasingly being integrated throughout the case-handling process.

Zhang said procuratorates use remote sensing satellites and territorial spatial planning data, administrative enforcement data and artificial intelligence to identify clues on a large scale. In Foshan, Guangdong province, a big data model for water environment governance identified 45 clues in a single screening, leading to 39 cases.

From January 2024 to April 2025, ecological litigation laboratories at provincial — and city-level procuratorates supported more than 4,500 case-handling activities and issued more than 3,500 testing reports.

In farmland protection cases, prosecutors have used satellite imagery, land parcel records and drone-based 3D modeling to collect evidence and quantify damage caused by illegal occupation of farmland, forests, grasslands and wetlands.

Digital tools are now used throughout the process, from information discovery and investigation to supervision of duty performance, rectification assessment and follow-up reviews, helping prosecutors verify whether ecological restoration projects have achieved tangible results, Zhang said.

The SPP has promoted the Yixinweigong volunteer cloud platform, recruiting 126,000 volunteers nationwide. The volunteers have submitted 38,000 clues and participated in 40,000 activities, including hearings and follow-up visits.

China's experience has also attracted growing international attention.

A number of Chinese cases have been included in the United Nations Environment Programme case database, while cases involving Nansi Lake governance and Yangtze River ship pollution control have been featured at international conferences, Zhang said.

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In June, the SPP held a roundtable with the Brazil Federal Public Prosecutor's Office and ClientEarth on prosecutorial cooperation in global environmental governance. Representatives from Australia, Mongolia, Poland, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and other countries attended. Vietnam has authorized its procuratorial organs to pilot public interest litigation, drawing on China's experience.

Looking ahead, Zhang said procuratorates will implement the provisions of the ecological environment code, support special legislation on procuratorial public interest litigation, and improve rules governing case scope, procedures, evidence collection and liability determination.

They will continue to focus on pollution prevention and control, green and low-carbon development, ecosystem protection, carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and national ecological security. Future work will place greater emphasis on professional supervision, closer coordination with administrative law enforcement, broader public participation and wider application of legal supervision mechanisms.

"Ecological and environmental public interest litigation has entered a stage of high-quality development,"Zhang said. "This requires prosecutors to handle cases with greater precision, stronger professional expertise and more effective coordination."

Contact the writers at yangzekun@chinadaily.com.cn