The hottest Green Peacock is threatened by hydropo

The last Green Peacock in China is threatened by "Hydropower". Will the last complete habitat be destroyed due to the construction of hydropower stations? On the afternoon of August 28, the country's first preventive environmental civil public interest litigation for wildlife protection was heard in Kunming intermediate people's Court (hereinafter referred to as Kunming intermediate people's court). The plaintiff believed that the hydropower station built by the defendant would inundate the habitat of the Green Peacock and lead to the regional extinction of the green sparrow. In addition, the completion of the hydropower station will also cause significant risk of damage to the national key protected plant Cycas Chenshi, tropical seasonal rainforest and tropical rainforest fragments. Based on this, the original told the court to order the defendant to immediately stop the construction of the hydropower station

environmental protection organizations questioned that hydropower projects threatened the last habitat of green peacocks

it had to start a year ago. On March 30, 2017, the plaintiff Beijing Chaoyang District Friends of Nature Environmental Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as friends of nature), Shanshui nature conservation center and wild China jointly issued an urgent recommendation letter to the Ministry of environmental protection, suggesting the suspension of hydropower projects in the Red River Basin, Save the last complete habitat of the endangered Green Peacock

I believe many people have questions here. When did peacocks everywhere in Yunnan become endangered species and need to be protected? According to the inquiry, the Green Peacock is a national first-class protected animal listed in the list of national key protected wild animals. It is an endangered species in the red list of endangered species of the World Conservation Union. In 2017, it was listed as a critically endangered species by the environmental protection department of Yunnan Province, and the blue peacock, the national bird of India, is often seen

"at that time, we learned from the report of Wild China that green peacocks were found in the middle and upper reaches of the Red River in Yunnan, but it is a pity that the hydropower station under construction is about to submerge their habitat." Ge Feng, the director of legal and policy advocacy of friends of nature, told Yunnan that later he had established contact with wild China, and jointly combed the literature and consulted experts with the "landscape nature conservation center" urgently. He learned that the research results of relevant experts and scholars in recent years were consistent with the survey results of "Wild China"

the hydropower project mentioned above refers to the cascade I Hydropower Station on the main stream of the Red River (Yuanjiang) (hereinafter referred to as the cascade hydropower station). The dam site of the project is located in Xinping County, Yuxi City, Yunnan Province. The designed water storage level of the dam is 675 meters, and the elevation of the upstream valley of the dam is usually 640 meters. After the dam is completed and impounded, a large submerged area will be formed in the upstream

Ge Feng said that since the project had begun construction and was planned to shut down the river in November 2017, the tripartite environmental protection social organizations that were aware of the urgency of the situation jointly sent an urgent recommendation letter to the Ministry of environmental protection. According to the letter of recommendation, the tripartite environmental protection organizations suggested that the Ministry of environmental protection immediately stop the hydropower project, re evaluate its impact on the local ecological environment, especially on important endangered protected species such as green peacocks and their complete habitats, revoke the EIA approval after investigation and verification, and plan for the protection of green peacocks' habitats in the long term on this basis

according to media reports, at the same time, friends of nature also filed a public interest lawsuit with Chuxiong intermediate people's Court on July 12, 2017, requesting that the defendant China Hydropower Consulting Group Xinping Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xinping company) and the defendant China Power Construction Group Kunming survey, design and Research Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Kunming Research Institute) jointly eliminate the impact of the construction of jiasajiang hydropower station on Green Peacock As for rare and endangered wild animals and plants such as cycads, as well as the threat of invasion of tropical seasonal rainforests and tropical rainforests, the construction of the hydropower station shall be stopped immediately, and the water storage shall not be intercepted, and the vegetation in the flooded area of the hydropower station shall not be cut down

after the case was filed and accepted, Chuxiong intermediate people's court reported to Yunnan Higher People's court to designate other intermediate people's courts to try it. After ruling, the case was assigned to Kunming intermediate people's court for trial

on August 28, the Kunming intermediate people's court formed a seven people's Congress collegial panel of "three judges + four jurors" to hear the case in public. Due to the large amount of evidence in the case, the collegial panel organized both parties to testify and cross examine in front of the court. On the same day, the court made a summary of the trial according to the previous evidence, guiding the plaintiff and the defendant to conduct court investigation and debate around the disputed facts

the plaintiff said that there were problems in the environmental assessment of Jiasa hydropower station. The environmental assessment unit Kunming Research Institute is not only one of the shareholders of the construction unit Xinping company, but also the general contractor of the project and an important beneficiary of the hydropower project. It is difficult to independently and objectively assess the impact of the project on the environment. The environmental impact report does not mention that the habitats of protected animals such as green peacocks will be flooded, nor does it make a comprehensive investigation and objective assessment of the flooded seasonal rainforest in which 29 new chemical materials in the fields of special rubber, engineering plastics, membrane materials, electronic chemicals and other fields are listed as advanced basic materials, nor does it mention the flooded tropical rainforest. As an important distribution area of many protected plants, such as cycads, a national first-class protected plant, and olive kernel, a national second-class protected plant, the environmental impact report did not conduct a comprehensive investigation

"there are no procedural and substantive problems claimed by the plaintiff in the environmental impact assessment of Jiasa hydropower station project. Xinping company carried out various environmental protection work in strict accordance with the requirements of the environmental impact assessment report and the relevant approval opinions during the project process, and arranged special environmental protection funds. All procedures of the project are complete, which is a legal construction project required by China's planning." The agent of Xinping company said that the project had been shut down in August 2017 and had not been closed for water storage. There was no potential threat to the ecological environment claimed by the plaintiff. Xinping company had no fault in the process of project construction and should not bear it

the agent of Kunming Research Institute said that since it has not carried out industrialization research, it has only undertaken environmental assessment and general contracting of the project after accepting the entrustment of the construction unit, and has stopped the construction of the project in accordance with the requirements of the construction unit. As an environmental assessment unit, it has carried out relevant work in accordance with the law, and there is no fraud in the relevant services of the environmental impact assessment institution stipulated in the environmental protection law, The plaintiff's claim has no factual and legal basis, and its own party should not bear it according to law

the defendant admitted that the project would be suspended indefinitely

during the trial, the plaintiff said that the ecological value of the construction and inundation area of the jiasajiang hydropower station is extremely high, and the biodiversity is extremely rich. The Hong1 area where the hydropower station is located should aim at the new generation of information technology, high-end equipment, new materials and other 10 strategic key areas. The middle and upper reaches of the river basin are the places with the highest population density of green peacocks in China, and the area is relatively intact The large area of the monsoon rainforest, and some valleys are also distributed with tropical rainforest fragments, is also an ideal habitat and habitat for cycads and other national baoronge industrial seminars to protect animals and plants

in this regard, the plaintiff applied for two expert witnesses to appear in court to explain the special issues related to this case, and two witnesses to explain the facts they know. The plaintiff said that the statements of the four witnesses proved that there were a large number of green peacocks in the flooded area of Jiasa hydropower station, and that the core habitat of green peacocks was below 675 meters of the water storage level of the hydropower station. At the same time, the witness pointed out through GPS that 205 Cycas Chen were distributed in the relevant tributaries of the Red River, and about 20 were distributed on the cliffs, of which 90% were below the water level of 675 meters

the defendant said that the witness's understanding of habitat was not rigorous. "There is indeed Green Peacock activity in this area, but its habitat cannot be proved by Green Peacock activity. Therefore, it is uncertain whether the project will cause a devastating impact on its population after impounding." The defendant said that the witness's calculation of Chen's cycads also needs further verification before it can be determined, and it is inappropriate to deny the EIA work before 2013 according to the current investigation results. Due to the insufficient theoretical support of basic research, the EIA cannot be carried out to characterize Chen's cycads found only in 2015

later, the two sides debated whether there were protective measures for Green Peacock, cycads Chen, tropical monsoon rain forest and tropical rain forest fragments after the construction of the project, and whether the protective measures were appropriate. It is worth mentioning that in the court trial, Xinping company said that the ecological protection red line of Yunnan Province had been released on June 28, 2018, and most areas of Jiasa hydropower station project had been included in the ecological protection red line. "According to relevant regulations, it is strictly forbidden to arbitrarily change the use of various development activities that do not meet the main function positioning. According to the current ecological protection red line requirements, the construction of this project will not be able to start, so the premise for the plaintiff to file this lawsuit will no longer exist." Xinping company agent said

after the trial lasted for 3 hours, the collegial panel announced an adjournment. In view of the complexity of the case, this case will be sentenced on another day