China's Legal Protection System for Pangolins: Past, Present, and Future.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Law and Policy
• Conservation Biology
• Judicial Studies

Background:

• China's legal framework for pangolin protection has evolved over seven decades, marked by distinct phases.
• A persistent conflict exists between legislative protection and the traditional medicinal use of pangolins.
• Inconsistencies in policy have historically enabled illegal exploitation despite regulatory efforts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the historical evolution and contemporary dynamics of China's pangolin protection legal and judicial framework.
• To identify the shift towards judicial activism and ecological civil litigation in recent years.
• To assess the effectiveness of current legal strategies and propose future improvements for pangolin conservation.

Main Methods:

• Review of over seventy years of regulatory changes, case law, and policy implementation.
• Systematic analysis of public court records and environmental public interest litigation databases.
• Examination of case studies illustrating judicial compensation and ecological valuation.

Main Results:

• A significant increase in environmental public interest litigation since 2020, signaling a move towards restorative justice.
• Courts are increasingly imposing wildlife resource loss fees, punitive damages, and compensation for ecological service loss.
• Despite progress, challenges remain, including non-uniform valuation standards, varied judicial discretion, and persistent smaller-scale violations.

Conclusions:

• Judicial innovations, such as ecological judicial restoration bases, are crucial for advancing pangolin conservation.
• Standardization of ecological valuation, enhanced civil society participation, and differentiated penal strategies are recommended.
• Judicial reform is identified as the cornerstone of China's evolving pangolin conservation strategy.