The green mountains stretch endlessly and the clear waters surge, reshaping the beautiful China with the concept of "two mountains". The phrase 'green mountains and clear waters are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver' is deeply engraved between mountains and seas, and has long become the 'most beautiful background' of the magnificent picture of China's construction.

In the procuratorial practice of fully implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization and Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, and serving as a safeguard for ecological conservation, administrative procuratorial work has leveraged its unique function of both promoting judicial organs’ lawful adjudication and advancing administrative organs’ law-based performance of duties. It has played a role in strengthening ecological and environmental resource protection in all respects, across all regions, and through the entire process, thereby bolstering the national ecological security barrier and forging a distinctive path of protection.

Interpreting the "judicial attitude" towards environmental protection through the supervision of administrative litigation
After being administratively punished for illegally discharging air pollutants, a certain company neither fulfilled its obligations nor applied for administrative reconsideration or filed an administrative lawsuit. When the ecological environment department applied for compulsory enforcement, the court ruled not to enforce it on the grounds that the company denied receiving the administrative penalty decision.
The procuratorial organs of Shandong Province have found that the ecological environment department has not retained evidence of the delivery of legal documents, and there are flaws in the law enforcement procedures, but they have not reached the level of "significant and obvious illegality". At the same time, they have presented facts and explained legal principles to the companies involved. Later, the company acknowledged the existence of environmental violations and the fact that it had received administrative penalty decisions during a public hearing. So, the procuratorial organs put forward prosecutorial suggestions, supervised the court to enforce according to law, and urged the ecological environment department to further regulate administrative law enforcement behavior.
The destruction of the ecological environment, if the corresponding administrative penalty decision cannot be fully implemented, will directly lead to the continuation of the illegal state. The procuratorial organs shall increase the supervision of administrative litigation, urge courts or administrative organs to correct illegal administrative behaviors in a timely manner, and protect environmental resources. Since 2023, the procuratorial organs have handled a total of 799 administrative judgment and supervision cases related to environmental pollution penalties, land use planning permits, mineral resource survey registration and mining approval, land acquisition, forest rights registration, administrative compensation, administrative agreements, etc., and have submitted 61 procuratorial suggestions for protest or retrial in accordance with the law; A total of 11000 administrative non litigation enforcement supervision cases were handled to address the issues of inadequate administrative penalties and enforcement.
It is reported that procuratorial organs in various regions rely on the special activities of "comprehensively deepening administrative procuratorial supervision and protecting people's livelihood and interests in accordance with the law" and "inspecting and protecting people's livelihood" deployed by the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and carry out small special projects with their own characteristics to promote timely investigation and punishment of a number of illegal behaviors that pollute the environment and damage resources——
A certain company was punished for illegally occupying the Yangtze River waterway and destroying greenery for nearly 20 years, but it has not been executed. The Zhongxian Procuratorate in Chongqing issued a prosecutorial recommendation to urge the court to enforce it, and coordinated multiple administrative units to demolish it over 30 days, restoring an area of over 10000 square meters and effectively protecting the ecology of the Yangtze River;
A village committee in Fujian changed the use of forest land without approval and failed to fulfill its obligation to restore vegetation and forestry production conditions after paying fines. The procuratorial organ issued a suggestion to urge the restoration of vegetation and forest land area of more than 4000 square meters;
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To promote the rectification of problems, provide services, and safeguard the national strategy
In November 2024, Ying Yong, the chief procurator of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, made a report on the administrative procuratorial work of the People's Procuratorate at the 12th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress, pointing out that "procuratorial organs should strengthen the judicial protection of environmental resources, protect the red line of cultivated land according to law, and from 2021, they will regularly carry out administrative non litigation implementation supervision in the field of land law enforcement investigation and handling, handle 41000 related cases, involving 401000 mu of land."
Nowadays, this set of data continues to grow, driven by the unremitting efforts of administrative procuratorates to promote the centralized rectification of land resources issues. In 2021, the Supreme People's Procuratorate deployed a special activity called "Administrative Non Litigation Execution Supervision in the Field of Land Law Enforcement Investigation" to promote the resolution of the problem of applying for compulsory enforcement of land administrative penalty decisions; In 2022, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, together with the Ministry of Natural Resources, issued the "Opinions on Establishing a Mechanism for the Connection between Administrative Prosecution and Natural Resources Administrative Law Enforcement", strengthening the communication and connection between administrative prosecution and land law enforcement, improving mechanisms for information sharing and case transfer, and releasing two batches of typical cases of administrative non litigation execution supervision in the field of land law enforcement investigation, using "long teeth" hard measures to protect arable land

The administrative procuratorial department of the procuratorial organs implements the strictest farmland protection system, regularly carries out administrative non litigation supervision in the field of land law enforcement and investigation, and helps to safeguard the red line of 1.8 billion mu of farmland. For example, the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate has launched a special administrative non litigation execution supervision activity in the field of land law enforcement and investigation of "inspecting and protecting grain warehouses", increasing the handling of cases in areas such as farmland protection and agricultural material safety, effectively curbing the problem of illegal occupation of farmland. For example, the Procuratorate of Xiushui County, Jiangxi Province, continues to follow up on the issue of illegal land use by a certain cultural and tourism company, urging the demolition of illegal buildings and the reclamation of 131 acres of arable land, guiding enterprises to create a diversified integration model of "culture+agriculture+tourism", and achieving a "win-win" situation for rural revitalization and arable land protection.
The reporter learned that currently, 31 provincial-level procuratorates have established a mechanism for linking administrative prosecution and administrative law enforcement with natural resources authorities, working together to ensure the safety of agricultural land and farmland.
At the same time, administrative procuratorates conscientiously implement the important instructions and directives of General Secretary Xi Jinping on river protection and governance, promote the implementation of major national strategic deployments such as the ten-year ban on fishing in the Yangtze River, and increase the handling of cases involving excessive logging, illegal land occupation, illegal mining, and production without environmental impact assessment in the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins. The Supreme People's Procuratorate also specially released typical cases under the theme of "Administrative Procuratorial Assistance for Ecological Protection and High quality Development of the Yangtze River and Yellow River Basin", safeguarding the long-term peace and stability of the Yangtze River and Yellow River with high-quality performance.
Using case supervision to block loopholes in law enforcement and judiciary
A certain environmental protection building materials company in Anhui has been administratively punished for its leader Ge and employee Wang for tampering with environmental monitoring data. Ge and Wang are suspected of environmental pollution and are under investigation. Considering the minor nature of the crime committed by the two individuals and their voluntary confession and acceptance of punishment, the procuratorial organ has made a decision not to prosecute. However, considering the fact that the two individuals have illegally discharged pollutants, a procuratorial opinion has been issued to relevant units, suggesting administrative penalties for the two individuals and implementing the "punishment to individuals" system for environmental violations.
From this case, it can be found that the reverse connection of execution, as a new function of administrative prosecution, has become a new growth point for the prosecution to carry out ecological environment and resource protection, relying on its advantages of ensuring the implementation of the criminal policy of balancing leniency and severity, and eliminating blind spots in accountability. Since 2023, procuratorial organs across the country have handled a total of 28000 cases involving the reverse connection of execution for environmental and resource protection, and issued 17000 procuratorial opinions, involving more than 24000 people.
In the comprehensive, all regional, and all process protection of ecological environment resources, administrative procuratorial work takes case handling as the starting point, consolidates consensus from all parties, and promotes systematic governance through case supervision.
The Procuratorate of the First District of Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province, found that the involved enterprise evaded punishment by deregistering while handling an administrative penalty case for environmental violations at a waste collection station. On the basis of handling this case, the court developed a supervision model for administrative non litigation execution cases involving enterprise deregistration, and identified a total of 25 companies or individuals who were administratively punished for environmental violations but failed to execute due to various circumstances. The procuratorial organs have issued prosecutorial suggestions to urge courts to standardize the time limit for handling cases, strengthen the examination of the subject of enforcement, urge administrative organs to strengthen enforcement efforts, timely eliminate environmental violations, and suggest that ecological environment departments and market supervision departments establish a mechanism for sharing administrative penalty information and enterprise cancellation information.
At present, the ecological environment department has transferred 23 batches of "blacklist" and 25 batches of "whitelist" related enterprises to the market supervision department based on this mechanism, and has cumulatively restricted the cancellation of more than 580 enterprises and lifted more than 310 restrictions on enterprise cancellation, "said Zhang Ying, a prosecutor at the First District Procuratorate of Zhongshan City.
Handle one case, govern one area. Procuratorial organs in various regions are striving to promote the transformation of the administrative procuratorial case handling mode from case by case supervision to "quality and efficiency oriented, case by case, data empowered" case by case supervision, and to promote the solution of deep-seated problems in ecological environment governance. In response to 12 cases of deforestation and other issues in a coal industry company, the local forestry department did not track the effectiveness, resulting in the ecological restoration of the deforested area, and issued procuratorial suggestions to urge it to investigate and track similar cases. A total of more than 17.4 hectares were replanted and greened; The Xiaogan City Procuratorate in Hubei Province urged relevant departments to shut down illegal oil refining sites, fill regulatory loopholes, and promote the rectification of hygiene and safety issues in the recycling of kitchen waste throughout the city in a case of illegal oil refining polluting the ecological environment
"This year is the 20th year since the concept of" two mountains "was put forward, and also the 35th anniversary of the implementation of the Administrative Procedure Law. We will take a more solid step towards" green "rule of law." The head of the Supreme People's Procuratorate's Administrative Procuratorate said that the administrative procuratorate will further strengthen the high-quality performance of duties, focus on handling environmental and resource cases involving mountains, water, forests, mines, sand and other areas, strengthen follow-up supervision, promote timely investigation and implementation of environmental violations, rely on the local party committee and government, promote the sharing of law enforcement judicial information, improve the level of intelligence and informatization of cooperation, jointly solve the bottleneck of judicial protection of the ecological environment, and contribute more procuratorial force to the realization of Chinese path to modernization in which people and nature coexist harmoniously. (New Society)