Forest police call for articles: Characteristics, causes and preventive measures of cases involving illegal logging and illegal logging

It is a large forestry resource county with a forest coverage rate of 67.8%, with an existing forest area of ??5.58 million acres and a standing stock of 11.67 million cubic meters. In recent years, with the development of the forestry economy, the incidence of cases of indiscriminate logging and illegal logging has also been high, and has been increasing year by year. Among them, the county procuratorate investigated and handled 23 cases of illegal logging and illegal logging, accounting for 57.5% of the total number of forest-related cases (40 cases) that year;

, there were 21 illegal logging cases

, accounting for 67.7% of the total number of forest-related cases (31 cases) that year;

From January to November, the number of illegal logging cases investigated by our institute , 36 cases of illegal logging, currently accounting for 70.5% of the total number of forest-related cases investigated (51 cases). This is a type of harmful case that seriously damages forest resources, damages the climate environment, and causes water and soil erosion. The author intends to conduct a preliminary analysis on the characteristics, causes and preventive countermeasures of cases of indiscriminate logging and illegal logging based on the forest-related cases investigated and handled by our institute.

1. Characteristics of cases of indiscriminate logging and illegal logging

1. The persons involved are mainly farmers and agricultural personnel in rural areas.

2. The educational level of the persons involved in the case is generally low, and most of them have junior high school education or below.

3. Most of the persons involved in the case changed from committing crimes alone to committing crimes in groups.

4. Such cases often occur in forest farms and remote areas where forest resources are concentrated, and it is difficult to investigate and deal with them.

5. Illegal logging and indiscriminate logging mainly include economic forest and miscellaneous tree species in collective forest resources.

2. Reasons for the frequent occurrence of forest-related cases

1. The persons involved in the case have weak legal awareness and a weak sense of the rule of law. In recent years, although the publicity of laws related to forest resources has been strengthened in rural areas, the publicity of laws needs to be strengthened and the effect of law popularization is not yet obvious. Farmers are not satisfied with the implementation of the Forest Law of the People's Republic of China and the Forest Law. We are still not very familiar with laws and regulations such as the "Detailed Rules", and we ignore the provisions of handling forest logging licenses in accordance with the law, and do not take seriously the illegal activities of illegal logging and indiscriminate logging of trees. There is a common phenomenon of cutting down trees first and then applying for a permit, or even not considering applying for a permit at all. It was not until the forest police or forestry department staff came to visit that they realized that their behavior was illegal and criminal. For example, in the case of Huang's indiscriminate deforestation, Huang cut down trees on the forest land he contracted and sold them to a timber operator. He still cut down the trees with the timber operator even though he knew that the timber operator had not obtained a forest felling license. When the forest police officers found them, they realized that they were suspected of deforestation and violated the law.

2. The drive of economic interests has indirectly led to the occurrence of forest-related cases such as indiscriminate logging and illegal logging. At present, with the development of the market economy, some rural villagers often sell or lease collective forest trees to timber operators for felling in the form of bidding or auction for their own economic interests, and the timber operators hand over the money to these After the villagers thought they were legal, they cut trees indiscriminately or even illegally without the approval of the forestry authorities and without obtaining a forest logging permit, in an attempt not to pay or evade the payment of license fees and forest taxes. . Even if a forest felling license is obtained with the approval of the forestry authorities, felling often does not follow the time, location, quantity, and tree species specified in the forest harvesting license. Regarding these illegal and criminal activities, some village committees or village collective organizations have left it alone because they have gained some benefits. For example: In the case of Chen’s excessive forest logging, Chen purchased a piece of forest land from his village for felling. After applying for a small amount of forest felling license from the forestry authority, he overcut the wood volume and tree species. The local village committee also He failed to stop it in time. When the forestry authorities found out, Chen overcut the tree by nearly 150 cubic meters.

3. The people involved live in poverty and have narrow employment channels, which to a certain extent also leads to the occurrence of forest-related cases such as indiscriminate logging and illegal logging.

At present, in many rural areas of our county, especially in more remote mountainous areas, farmers rely on single farming to maintain their lives and have no more business channels. As a result, some farmers have low economic income and live in poverty. Under the pressure of life and education level, Under lower real conditions, some farmers turned their attention to the trees on the mountains, and illegal logging and indiscriminate logging continued to occur. For example, in the case of Hu’s illegal logging, Hu’s family is located in a remote mountainous area, has a low income, and lives in poverty. They cut down trees without applying for a logging permit from the forestry department, and cut down a huge amount, and eventually embarked on a criminal path. .

4. The forestry authorities have unreasonable forest resource management models, inadequate management measures, and even malfeasance. At present, our county's forestry authorities are divided into forestry bureaus, state-owned forest farms, and township forestry stations to manage forestry resources. Most of the employees in the Forestry Bureau and Forestry Stations are staff who do not receive financial allocations but "earn their own income and use forests to support people". Several state-owned forest farms in our county are also liabilities under the existing forestry management system. The wages of most employees are low, and this management model allows the phenomenon of deforestation to exist in disguise. In terms of forestry resource management measures, the forestry authorities mainly control the number and species of trees felled by issuing forest harvesting licenses. However, in practice, some towns even issue forest logging licenses, which become a "pass" for felling or purchasing timber within the territory of the town, giving a "legal" cover for illegal and indiscriminate logging crimes. Since last year, the hospital has investigated and punished 2 cases of malfeasance in forestry departments involving two persons. For example, in January, the hospital received a report from the public that the county forestry department had committed serious malfeasance in the case of indiscriminate logging at the county Zhexi Forest Farm. Investigation: In August, Hu Moumou, the director of Zhexi Forest Farm in the county, presided over a forest farm party and government leadership meeting, made the decision to cut down a batch of commercial timber, and arranged for Jin Moumou, the chief of the forestry management unit of the forest farm, to be responsible for the felling of the trees. license. On August 28, the site contracted out a total of 1,825 trees and 505.37 cubic meters of state-owned ecological public welfare forest tree species to villager Xia for felling at a price of 238,000 yuan. Jin Moumou then made a survey design form for the logging area with an intensity of 50 in the name of snow damage, wrote a "Report on Logging and Renewal of National Key Protection Forests and Special Timber Forests", and presented this information to the Forest Resources Management of the County Forestry Bureau Apply for a forest felling license. After the criminal suspect Zhang Moumou accepted the application, he clearly knew that the logging intensity of the state-owned ecological public welfare forest could not exceed 15, but still signed the "reviewed" opinion on the application materials and issued a 500 cubic meter forest logging license, resulting in the state-owned ecological public welfare forest. The serious consequences of deforestation of public welfare forests. The criminal suspect Zhang Moumou, as a staff member of the forestry authority, still issued forest felling licenses in violation of regulations despite knowing that he did not meet the conditions for issuance of forest felling licenses

and the quantity was huge. His behavior is suspected of The crime of illegally issuing forest logging licenses.

5. The crackdown on forest-related crimes is not strong enough or ruthless enough. After those involved in illegal logging and indiscriminate logging were brought to court, most of the defendants were sentenced to suspended sentences or lighter sentences after paying a certain amount of fines. According to statistics, in recent years, nearly 75% of the defendants in forest-related cases prosecuted by our court were eventually sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment or a suspended sentence by the court. This lighter sentence is good news for those involved, but the disadvantages are also obvious. On the one hand, the forest police officers have a lot of opinions. The forest-related crime suspects they spent a lot of effort to capture were not sentenced to substantive sentences in the end. In the long run, the phenomenon of forest police officers using punishment instead of punishment for forest-related crimes has increased;

On the other hand, lighter sentences and sentences for those involved in forest-related crimes have not been able to effectively deter such people. Others have even "actively" followed suit in committing crimes. They have realized that the cost of committing crimes is low. Once you are not caught, the illegally felled or indiscriminately felled trees belong to you. Once you are caught, you will only be "fined" and will not go to jail. This has led to illegal and indiscriminate logging and other forest-related crimes. Frequent malignancy.

3. Preventive Countermeasures

1. Effectively strengthen the forest laws and regulations, mainly the "Forest Law of the People's Republic of China" and "Forest Law Implementation Rules", in the vast majority of Legal publicity and education in rural areas. In order to reduce the occurrence of forest-related crimes, various forms of legal publicity and education can be carried out based on the reality that mountainous areas are vast and the population is dispersed. Through the legal publicity and education of these laws and regulations, the awareness of law-abiding can be deeply rooted in the hearts of farmers, allowing farmers to consciously safeguard their natural environment, and fundamentally put an end to the criminal phenomenon of illegal logging and indiscriminate logging.

2. Expand employment channels, transfer surplus rural labor, adjust industrial structure, and effectively increase farmers’ income. The low income and poverty of the vast number of farmers in rural areas is an important economic reason that induces forest-related crimes such as illegal logging and deforestation. Therefore, governments and relevant departments at all levels must take effective measures to expand employment channels and move to coastal and economically developed areas. The surplus labor force in rural areas and helping farmers adjust the industrial structure can increase farmers' economic income, so that farmers can abandon the backward thinking of "depending on mountains and water", and it is also a good countermeasure to put an end to illegal logging, indiscriminate deforestation and other criminal phenomena.

3. Forestry authorities should better manage forest resources. Forestry authorities are the executors of laws and regulations related to forest resources. Only when executors earnestly perform their management responsibilities for forest resources and keep forest resources under safe monitoring around the clock can forest resources suffer minimal human damage.

4. Intensify the crackdown on forest-related crimes. To effectively deter the occurrence of forest-related crime cases, political and legal agencies such as forest police, procuratorial organs, and judicial organs must actively explore and build an "integrated cooperation mechanism" and strive to create information interaction, resource sharing, and crackdowns that address both symptoms and root causes. The intensity of crackdown on forest-related criminal cases has built a "green barrier" for forest areas and forest resources. Major forest-related cases must be deployed and arranged in a unified manner. Procuratorate and law enforcement agencies must intervene in major forest-related cases in advance, fix evidence, and achieve quick arrests, quick prosecutions, and quick verdicts. It is necessary to combine physical punishment with economic punishment, severely sentence forest-related criminals, and achieve the goal of "once committing a crime, it will be difficult to recover in ten years", and truly psychologically deter the occurrence of forest-related crimes.

5. The procuratorial organs should intensify the legal supervision of forest-related cases and the investigation and handling of malfeasance by forestry authorities. The procuratorial organ is the country's specialized legal supervision agency. It investigates and handles forest-related occupational crimes, analyzes the causes of crimes, finds loopholes in the system, issues full-length written procuratorial suggestions to the relevant units that have committed the crime, and urges the units that have committed the crime to make rectifications and plug loopholes. Effectively reduce and prevent the occurrence of forest-related crimes. At the same time, in view of the forestry authorities’ indiscriminate logging and illegal logging and other dereliction of duty in the existing management model, the anti-malfeasance departments of the procuratorial organs must intensify investigation and punishment, strictly crack down on forest-related official crimes, and effectively Protect forest resources, make "the sky bluer, the water clearer, and the mountains greener" and build a harmonious nature.