The conference on advancing public interest litigation prosecution work for marine ecological environment and resources protection was held on June 19 in Yantai, a coastal city in East China's Shandong province.
Zhang Xueqiao, Deputy Prosecutor General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP), attended and addressed the meeting. He stressed the need to strengthen systematic and innovative thinking, enhance management and initiate litigation when necessary, and continuously intensify efforts in public interest protection to better serve the building of China into a maritime power.
Zhang emphasized the importance of fully understanding the significance of protecting the marine ecological environment and resources.
Following the accumulation of experiences in governing inland river and lake basins, procuratorial public interest litigation efforts are now shifting focus towards the ocean, and adopting an integrated approach to governing both land and offshore areas as a unified ecosystem, which is more in line with the law of ecological and environmental protection, he said.
Zhang called for strengthening systematic thinking to wage a decisive battle in public interest litigation in the maritime domain.
He urged the procuratorial organs in coastal regions to concentrate on key issues such as pollution in rivers flowing into the sea, illegal aquaculture and coastal land reclamation management, share experiences and leverage the advantages of the procuratorial integration.
While calling for strengthening innovative thinking, Zhang encouraged procuratorial organs to use external expertise such as deputies to the people's congresses, members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, experts, scholars, and volunteers dedicated to public welfare.
Modern technological tools like drones and satellite remote sensing should be leveraged in developing case-handling models to enhance the efficiency and quality of case handling, he said.
Moreover, Zhang called for strengthening management, initiating litigation when necessary and enriching the portfolio of public interest litigation cases to provide support for the specialized legislation on procuratorial public interest litigation.
Three deputies to the National People's Congress were invited to the conference. Representatives from 11 provincial-level procuratorates in coastal regions participated in the meeting, where they exchanged views on the progress of ocean-related public interest litigation prosecution work.
