China environmental case added to UNEP database

A public interest litigation case handled by Supreme People's Procuratorate over ecological damage in the Nansi Lake basin has been included in a case database of the United Nations Environment Programme, highlighting China's efforts in cross-regional environmental governance.

The case, directly filed and handled by the SPP, focused on watershed governance across administrative regions — a longstanding challenge in environmental protection. It demonstrated how procuratorial public interest litigation can help address ecological damage that spans multiple jurisdictions and promote unified law enforcement standards.

The Nansi Lake basin stretches across Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui and Henan provinces. During the flood season in August 2020, water quality at several monitoring sections in the basin deteriorated to the worst level.

Following a recommendation from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the SPP launched a public interest litigation case over ecological damage in the basin.

The SPP established an integrated case-handling team and, for the first time, applied satellite remote-sensing technology to monitor pollution across the entire Nansi Lake area, providing technical support for more precise and efficient case handling.

Through the case, the SPP coordinated with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment to urge the four provinces to formulate comprehensive water pollutant discharge standards for the Nansi Lake basin, helping unify administrative enforcement standards across the region.

According to the UNEP database, the case illustrates how prosecutors can help tackle cross-regional environmental damage, clarifies the role of procuratorial organs in such cases, and demonstrates how ecological damage compensation can be enforced when pollution sources are complex.

The inclusion follows a memorandum of understanding signed by the SPP and UNEP in January to strengthen cooperation in environmental and natural resources protection.

Under the memorandum, the two sides agreed to exchange information on environmental laws, policies and judicial practices, including China's progress in environmental public interest litigation.

They also agreed to build an information-sharing network to exchange tools, resources and typical cases related to environmental public interest litigation and environmental and natural resources cases, and may conduct joint research on cases involving environmental public interests.

The SPP said it will continue exploring cooperation with UNEP in environmental public interest litigation and strengthen exchanges with prosecutors at the global and regional levels to promote the rule of law in environmental governance.