China's top court stresses crackdown on illegal tree felling

BEIJING, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Wednesday stressed the importance of cracking down on the illegal felling of trees ahead of the country's second National Ecology Day, which falls on Thursday.

The SPC released four typical cases handled by local courts in recent years in a statement to warn the public against indiscriminately felling trees, and also emphasized the necessity of obtaining certain licenses before going ahead with tree felling.

In the released court cases, punishments were imposed on a number of individuals for offenses including damaging trees to plant cash crops, transporting illegally felled trees, and cutting trees in forest land that was converted from cropland under the country's long-term program of returning farmland to forest.

A decision was made to designate Aug. 15 as China's annual National Ecology Day at a session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, in June 2023.