Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Trial of Criminal Cases Involving the Destruction of Forest Resources
(Adopted at the 1141st meeting of the Adjudication Committee of the Supreme People's Court on November 17, 2000)
Legal Interpretation [2000] No. 36
The Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Law in the Trial of Criminal Cases Involving the Destruction of Forest Resources was adopted by the 1141st meeting of the Adjudication Committee of the Supreme People's Court on November 17, 2000, and is hereby promulgated and shall come into force on December 11, 2000.
November 22, 2010
In order to punish the criminal activities of destroying forest resources in accordance with the law, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law, a number of issues concerning the specific application of the law in the trial of such cases are hereby explained as follows:
Article 1: [Precious Trees] The "precious trees" provided for in Article 344 of the Criminal Law include ancient and famous trees with major historical commemorative significance, scientific research value, or long-standing age determined by the competent forestry departments at the provincial level or above, precious trees whose export is prohibited or restricted by the State, and trees included in the list of wild plants under key national protection.
Article 2: [Serious Circumstances] In any of the following circumstances, it is a "serious circumstance" of illegal logging or destruction of precious trees:
(1) Illegally logging two or more precious trees or destroying precious trees, causing the death of three or more precious trees;
(2) Illegally harvesting more than 2 cubic meters of precious trees;
(3) Organizing, planning, or directing illegal logging or destruction of precious trees;
(4) Other situations where the circumstances are serious.
Article 3: [Crimes of Illegal Logging of Forest Trees] Where any of the following circumstances are committed for the purpose of illegal possession, and the number is relatively large, the crime of stealing forest trees shall be convicted and punished in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph of Article 345 of the Criminal Law:
(1) Cutting down forests or other trees owned by the State, collectives, or others or contracted by others for management without authorization;
(2) Cutting down forests or other trees contracted for management by the unit or the unit or the person himself without authorization;
(3) Harvesting forests or other forest trees owned by the State, collectives, or others or contracted by others for management and management outside the sites specified in the forest logging permit.
Article 4 [Quantitative Criteria] The "quantity of illegal logging" is "relatively large", starting from two to five cubic meters or 100 to 200 young trees; the "huge number" of illegal logging trees starts from 20 to 50 cubic meters or 1,000 to 2,000 young trees; and the "particularly large number" of illegal logging trees starts from 100 to 200 cubic meters or 5,000 to 10,000 young trees.
Article 5: [Crimes of Indiscriminate Logging] Whoever violates the provisions of the Forest law in any of the following circumstances and has a relatively large number shall be convicted and punished for the crime of indiscriminate logging in accordance with the provisions of the second paragraph of criminal law article 345:
(1) arbitrarily harvesting forests or other trees owned by the unit or by oneself without the approval of the competent forestry administrative department and other competent departments prescribed by law, or by arbitrarily harvesting forests or other forest trees owned by the unit or owned by oneself, without the approval of the competent forestry administrative department or other competent departments prescribed by law, or by violating the time, quantity, species or method of forest logging permits;
(2) Harvesting forests or other trees owned by others in excess of the quantity specified in the forest logging permit.
If the party to a dispute over the ownership of forest trees cuts down forests or other forest trees without authorization before the ownership of the forest trees is confirmed, and the quantity is relatively large, it shall be punished as the crime of indiscriminate logging.
Article 6 [Quantitative Standards] Indiscriminate logging of trees is "large in quantity", starting from 10 to 20 cubic meters or 500 to 1,000 young trees; indiscriminate logging of trees is "huge in number", starting from 50 to 100 cubic meters or 2,500 to 5,000 young trees.
Article 7: [Accumulation of Quantity] Where a small amount of forest trees are repeatedly illegally logged or indiscriminately cut within a year without punishment, the cumulative number of illegally logged or indiscriminately logged trees constitutes a crime, and criminal responsibility is to be pursued in accordance with law.
Article 8: [Imaginary Conspirators] Whoever illegally cuts or indiscriminately cuts down precious trees, and at the same time violates the provisions of articles 344 and 345 of the Criminal Law, shall be convicted and punished in accordance with the provisions on heavier punishments.
Article 9: [Crime of Theft] Whoever steals trees owned by the State, collectives, or others and has already fallen down for oneself, as well as steals sporadic trees planted in front of and behind other people's houses and on their own reserved land, if the amount is relatively large, shall be convicted and punished for the crime of theft in accordance with the provisions of article 264 of the Criminal Law.
Article 10: [Determination of Knowledge] The "knowingly knowing" in "illegally acquiring trees that are known to be illegally logged or indiscriminately logged" in article 345 of the Criminal Law refers to knowing or should have known. In any of the following circumstances, it may be deemed that they should have known, except where there is evidence that clearly they have been deceived:
(1) purchasing timber in an illegal timber trading venue or sales unit;
(2) the acquisition of timber sold at a price significantly lower than the market price;
(3) Purchasing timber sold in violation of regulations.
Article 11: [Criteria for Circumstances] In any of the following circumstances, it is a "serious circumstance" to illegally purchase illegally or indiscriminately felled forest trees in a forest area:
(1) Illegally purchasing illegally logged or indiscriminately logged forests of more than 20 cubic meters, or more than 1,000 young trees
(2) Illegally purchasing two cubic meters or more precious trees that were illegally logged or indiscriminately logged;
(3) Other situations where the circumstances are serious.
In any of the following circumstances, it is a "particularly serious circumstance" for illegally purchasing illegally logged or indiscriminately felling trees in forest areas:
(1) Illegally purchasing more than 100 cubic meters of illegally logged or indiscriminately logged forest trees, or more than 5,000 young trees;
(2) Illegally purchasing 5 cubic meters or more of precious trees that were illegally logged or indiscriminately logged;
(3) Other situations where the circumstances are particularly serious.
Article 12: [Illegal Issuance of Certificates] Where a staff member of a competent forestry department violates the provisions of the Forestry Law by issuing a forest logging permit in excess of the approved annual logging quota or indiscriminately issuing a forest logging permit in violation of the provisions, in any of the following circumstances, it falls under the "serious circumstances and causes serious damage to the forest" provided for in article 407 of the Criminal Law, and is convicted and punished for the crime of illegally issuing a forest logging permit:
(1) Issuing a forest logging permit to allow the cumulative number of logging to exceed the approved annual logging quota, resulting in the number of forest trees being harvested is more than 10 cubic meters;
(2) Indiscriminately issuing forest logging permits, resulting in the indiscriminate felling of more than 20 cubic meters of forest trees;
(3) Indiscriminately issuing forest logging permits, resulting in the indiscriminate felling of precious trees;
(4) Approving the logging of trees that are prohibited by the State from being harvested, where the circumstances are heinous;
(5) Other situations where the circumstances are serious.
Article 13: [Forgery of Documents] Whoever forges, alters, or buys or sells forest logging permits, timber transportation certificates, certificates of ownership of forests, forest trees, or forest land, approval letters for the examination and approval of forest land, receipts for payment of fees such as forest land for afforestation funds, and other forestry documents approved by other state organs constitute a crime, shall be convicted and punished for the crime of forging, altering, or buying or selling official documents or certificates of state organs in accordance with the provisions of the first paragraph of Criminal Law article 280.
Whoever buys or sells a business license certificate such as an import and export permit certificate, and at the same time violates the crimes provided for in articles 225 and 280 of the Criminal Law, shall be convicted and punished in accordance with the provisions on heavier punishment.
Article 14: [Looting of Forest Trees] Where a crowd is gathered to rob a forest of more than five cubic meters, it is a "relatively large amount" of crowds to rob a forest tree; where a crowd is gathered to rob a forest of more than 20 cubic meters, it is a "huge amount" of gathering a crowd to rob a "huge amount", and those who are the ringleaders and active participants are convicted and punished for the crime of gathering crowds to rob in accordance with the provisions of article 268 of the Criminal Law.
Article 15: [Crimes of Theft] Whoever illegally commits acts such as seed mining, fat mining, digging bamboo shoots, digging roots, or peeling tree bark, and so forth, and obtains a relatively large amount of economic benefits, shall be convicted and punished for the crime of theft in accordance with the provisions of article 264 of the Criminal Law. Where other crimes are also constituted, they shall be convicted and punished in accordance with the provisions on heavier punishments.
Article 16: [Unit Crimes] Where a unit commits a crime provided for in articles 344 and 345 of the Criminal Law, the standards for conviction and sentencing are to be implemented in accordance with the provisions of this Interpretation.
Article 17 [Calculation Method] The amount of forest trees provided for in this Interpretation is calculated by the accumulation of standing wood, and the calculation method is: the raw wood accumulation is divided by the yield of the tree species.
The term "young tree" in this interpretation refers to a tree with a chest diameter of less than five centimeters.
The amount of indiscriminate logging should be calculated above the amount of error allowed by the survey design of the logging area.
Article 18: [Purpose of Crime] On the issue of conviction and sentencing of bamboo forests whose main purpose is to produce bamboo timber, the relevant provincial, autonomous regional, or directly governed municipality's high people's courts may refer to the spirit of the above provisions to stipulate specific standards for that region, and report them to the Supreme People's Court for the record.
Article 19: The higher people's courts of each province, autonomous region, and municipality directly under the Central Government may, on the basis of the actual conditions in their respective regions, determine the specific quantitative standards for enforcement in that region within the quantitative range provided for in Articles 4 and 6 of this Interpretation, and report them to the Supreme People's Court for the record.
