For Reference Only

XIAMEN MARITIME COURT

Civil Ruling

(2018) Min 72 Min Chu No. 152

Plaintiff: China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, with address at **7B, Empark International Apartment, No.** Banjing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, China (hereinafter referred to as “CBCGDF”)

Legal Representative: HU Deping, Chairman.

Authorized agent ad litem: LI Zhihu, employee of CBCGDF

On 11 January 2018, this court received a statement of claim from CBCGDF, requesting this court to order the Defendants to: (1) cease their environmental pollution and ecological damage acts; (2) eliminate the danger that has caused environmental pollution; (3) restore the local ecological environment; (4) compensate for the loss of ecological functions (as assessed by qualified appraisers) before the environment is restored; (5) bear the assessment and appraisal fees, travel expenses, expert fees and lawyers’ fees in connection with this case; and, (6) bear the court costs for this case, on the basis of the following fact and ground: since 27 February 2001, the Defendants the People’s Government of Liushui Town, Pingtan County, Fujian Province, China, and Pingtan Longxiang Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. had been damaging the ecology of the Shanmen Bay, Pingtan County, Fujian Province, China, which was in violation of the Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China and the Marine Environment Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, and thus the Defendants shall bear the legal liability including but not limited to ceasing the infringement, relieving the damage and compensating for the loss.

Upon review, this court holds, according to Paragraph 2 of Article 89 of the Marine Environment Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China which provides “[F]or any damage caused to marine ecosystems, marine aquatic resources or marine protected areas that results in heavy losses to the State, the interested department empowered by the provisions of this Law to conduct marine environment supervision and control shall, on behalf of the State, claim compensation against those held liable for the damage”, and Article 3 of the Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the Trial of Cases Involving Disputes over Compensation for Damage to Marine Natural Resources and Ecological Environment which provides “[W]here an organ that exercises the power of marine environment supervision and control as prescribed in Article 5 of the Marine Environment Protection Law files a lawsuit involving compensation for damage to marine natural resources and ecological environment according to the division of functions, a people's court shall accept such lawsuit”, only the organ empowered by the law to conduct marine environment supervision and control is entitled to claim compensation for any damage to marine natural resources and ecological environment, while the Plaintiff is a foundation which is a charity, so the Plaintiff shall not be entitled to file the lawsuit.

In accordance with Article 119 and Article 123 of the Civil Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China, the ruling is hereby rendered as below:

The lawsuit filed by the Plaintiff China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation is not accepted by this court.

If dissatisfied with this Ruling, the Plaintiff may, within ten days after receipt of this Ruling served by this court, submit a statement of appeal to this court to file appeal before the Fujian Higher People’s Court.

                                                                                                       Judge:                 WANG Duanduan

                                                                                                      17 January 2018

                                                                                                        Court Clerk:       SONG Zhigang