21 cases of illegal activities related to land, natural resources reported in Q2

China's natural resources and forestry departments jointly issued 21 typical cases of illegal activities discovered during law enforcement supervision in the second quarter of this year, urging all regions to learn from the cases and uphold the red lines of farmland and ecological protection.

The 21 cases, reported by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Tuesday, involve 16 provinces, and include illegal occupation and damage to arable land, illegal mining, deforestation, and even falsification to evade supervision.

One of the cases involved a villager surnamed Shan in Liaoyang, Liaoning province, who illegally piled tailings on 1.65 hectares of permanent basic farmland since March 2023, resulting in a decrease in the quality and degradation of the function of the black soil farmland in the area.

The departments also reported cases of lax enforcement by local governments.

Typical cases include a township government in Fujian's Zhangzhou, which failed to organize rectification work for the illegal occupation of 3.14 hectares of permanent basic farmland.

More than 70 percent of the arable land was continuously occupied by a local stone slab factory and nearby villagers for discarding waste stone slag and garbage stones since 2012, while the rest served as a sand and gravel dumping site with improper approval from the village committee since 2022.

Although some rectification measures were undertaken, they were deemed incomplete — as stated in the announcement — highlighting that certain waste materials were left uncleared and others were merely covered with soil.

The departments have committed to continue monitoring, supervising and reporting on the implementation of rectification efforts in these cases.

In addition, quarterly announcements are expected from the departments in the future in order to strengthen supervision, optimize long-term mechanisms, and uphold the red lines of farmland and ecological protection, as well as the legal and policy boundaries.