Judges to get tough on old tree felling

Top court guides on case handling to enhance protection of natural resources

Chinese courts have been required to strengthen penalties against those that damage or destroy trees that are more than 100 years old.

The Supreme People's Court, China's top court, issued an interpretation of the Criminal Law on Monday, with clarification on how to handle criminal cases involving forest resources.

"We've frequently seen cases in the past few years in which people have cut down, destroyed or even poisoned old trees," said Yu Haisong, an official from the top court's research office.

In one case, three people, surnamed Ouyang, He and Li, were imprisoned and fined after being found to have drilled into camphor trees to inject pesticides from April to December in 2021 in Hunan province to fell them, Yu said.

"They poisoned seven such trees in total, and then benefited from the plant sales," he said, revealing that one of the trees was sold at a price of more than 338,000 yuan ($46,600).

Five of the felled trees were more than 500 years old, and the other two were also over 300 years old, he added.

The three defendants were convicted of damaging key national protected wild plants.

Ouyang was sentenced to five years in prison and fined 20,000 yuan; He was jailed for four and a half years and fined 20,000 yuan; and Li was jailed for three and a half years and fined 10,000 yuan.

"Ancient trees have special historical, cultural, scientific and ecological value, so it's essential and urgent to increase efforts to protect them and prevent behaviors that harm tree resources," Yu said.

While calling on judges to protect old trees in line with those on the country's list of key protected wild plants, he cited the interpretation, noting that for those that aren't listed, judges are allowed to punish criminals based on research of the species, ages, and the historical and cultural value of the damaged trees.

The 20-article interpretation will take effect on Tuesday, China's first National Ecology Day.

Zhou Jiahai, deputy head of the top court's research office, said that such a legal document enables judges to get tough on crimes involving the damaging of forest resources and meet the demand for forest protection.

"It's the latest move to further implement the central leadership's requirement on the construction of an ecological civilization," he added.

Data released by the top court on Monday showed that from 2018 to last year, more than 64,000 criminal cases involving the damage or destruction of forest resources were concluded, with punishments handed down to over 82,000 defendants.