China has stepped up efforts to strengthen penalties and improve the quality of environmental justice, leading to a continuous drop in related cases, according to the country's top court.

The Supreme People's Court released a report on Thursday, showing a decline in the number of environmental cases heard by Chinese courts, with figures falling from 297,492 in 2021 to 245,723 in 2024.

Last year, courts nationwide continued their vigorous enforcement of environmental laws and regulations related to air, water, soil, solid waste and noise protection, imposing stringent criminal penalties on those who polluted the environment and harmed ecosystems, the report said.

Throughout the year, courts at all levels handled 2,012 criminal pollution cases, concluding 1,637 of them. Additionally, they addressed over 3,600 criminal cases involving illegal mining, resolving 2,956, the report stated.

It also highlighted that criminal punishments were given to individuals involved in smuggling endangered animals or their products, illegal fishing, unlawful hunting and timber theft.

For example, in a pollution case, a court in Jiangsu province ruled that a chemical company, a technology enterprise and several individuals were criminally liable for illegally discharging hazardous waste into a sewage treatment plant across regional boundaries. The verdict prompted the defendants to pay more than 14 million yuan ($1.95 million) in compensation for environmental damage.

In another case, judges in Guangdong province sentenced a resident surnamed Yi to imprisonment for illegally introducing invasive species by importing 1,760 red-eared slider turtles. The ruling was intended to protect the country's biodiversity and safeguard national ecological security.

While intensifying the crackdown on environmental crimes, Chinese courts have also been developing professional adjudication teams to support relevant case handling, further promoting environmental conservation.

By the end of 2024, China had established 2,424 judicial bodies, including tribunals and panels, dedicated to environmental case handling. These bodies are staffed by more than 16,100 judicial workers specializing in environmental trials and legal services, the report revealed.

An expert team led by Lyu Zhongmei, vice-president of the China Law Society, praised the sustainable effort to enhance the professionalism of environmental adjudication. "China has charted a course of environmental justice modernization uniquely tailored to its own characteristics over the past decade," Lyu's team said.

The team stressed the importance of establishing a robust judicial framework for major river basins, such as the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, and called for better use of public interest litigation to address environmental disputes.

The top court's report also noted the increased collaboration between courts and other authorities in key regional watersheds, emphasizing the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the construction of the Xiong'an New Area, the environmental protection of river basins and the establishment of national parks.

It also encouraged judges to engage in more international exchanges on environmental justice and to optimize legal services to better face challenges in this regard in the new era.

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