Regulation of Henan Province on the Protection of Wild Plants

· Document Number：Announcement No. 68 of the Standing Committee of People’s Congress of Henan Province

· Area of Law： Agriculture Animal Husbandry Fisheries Forestry

· Level of Authority： Provincial Local Regulations

· Date issued：03-30-2007

· Effective Date：07-01-2007

· Status： Effective

· Issuing Authority： Henan Province

Announcement of the Standing Committee of People's Congress of Henan Province
(No. 68)
The Regulation of Henan Province on the Protection of Wild Plants have been adopted at the 30th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 11th People's Congress of Henan Province on March 30, 2007, and are hereby promulgated and shall be effective as of July 1, 2007.
Standing Committee of People's Congress of Henan Province
March 30, 2007
Regulations of Henan Province on the Protection of Wild Plants
(Adopted at the 30th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 11th People's Congress of Henan Province on March 30, 2007)
Article 1 These Regulations are formulated for the purposes of protecting, developing and rationally utilizing the wild plant resources, protecting biodiversity and maintaining the ecological balance in accordance with the provisions of the Forest Law of the People's Republic of China and the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Wild Plants Protection and in light of the actual conditions of this Province.
Article 2 All the activities relating to the protection, development and utilization of the wild plants within the administrative region of this Province must be conducted in conformity with these Regulations.
Article 3 The wild plants protected under these Regulations refer to the precious plants growing naturally in their original habitats, and those growing naturally in their original habitats which are rare or on the verge of extinction and of important economic, scientific or cultural values.
Wild plants shall be divided into wild plants under priority protection by the State and wild plant under priority protection by the Province.
The concrete species of wild plants shall be governed in accordance with the lists of the wild plants under priority State protection and priority provincial protection.
Article 4 The entities and individuals that have made remarkable achievements in the protection, scientific research, cultivation or utilization of, or publicity for, and education in wild plants shall be rewarded by the people's governments at or above the county level.
Article 5 The competent administrative departments of forestry and agriculture at or above the county level (hereinafter referred to as the competent administrative departments of wild plants) shall be in charge of the work of wild plants protection in their respective administrative areas. The division of labor between the competent administrative department of forestry and that of agriculture in terms of wild plants species protection shall be executed on the basis of the lists of wild plants under State priority protection and under provincial priority protection.
Other relevant departments of the people's governments at or above the county level shall be responsible for the relevant work of protection of wild plants in accordance with their respective functions and responsibilities.
Article 6 The protection of the wild plants under priority protection by the State shall be carried out in accordance with the list approved and promulgated by the State Council.
The list of the wild plants under priority protection by the Province shall be proposed by the provincial competent administrative department of wild plants in conjunction with the provincial departments of environment protection and construction, etc. and be promulgated upon approval by the provincial people's government, and shall be submitted to the State Council for the record.
It is forbidden to sabotage, destroy or damage wild plants and their habitats.
Article 7 The competent administrative departments of wild plants at or above the county level shall regularly carry out surveys of the resources of wild plants within their respective administrative areas, so as to be in the know about the actual increase or decrease of wild plants, establish and perfect wild plant resources archives, in order to provide a scientific basis for the protection and utilization of the wild plants resources, and the funds needed in this connection shall be allocated by the people's governments at the same level.
Article 8 Nature reserves shall, in accordance with the provisions of the relevant laws and regulations, be established in the areas where the wild plant species are naturally distributed in relative concentration. In other areas, the competent administrative departments of wild plants and other relevant departments of the people's governments at or above the county level may designate wild plant protection points or put up wild plant protection signs in light of the actual conditions.
It is forbidden to damage the protective facilities or the protection signs for wild plants.
Article 9 The competent administrative departments of wild plants and other relevant departments at or above the county level shall keep an eye on, and monitor the environmental impact on the growth of wild plants, and take measures to preserve and improve the environment for the survival of wild plants. When the environment has affected the growth of wild plant, the competent administrative departments of wild plants shall, in concert with the other relevant departments, investigate, and deal with the situation according to law.
Article 10 Where a construction project has produced an adverse effect on the natural habitat of wild plants, the construction project owner entity shall make an assessment of the effect in the environmental implications report to be submitted, and come up with corresponding protective measures; the department of environmental protection shall, in examining and approving the report, seek the opinions of the competent administrative departments of wild plants.
The construction project may not occupy the original habitat of the wild plants.
Article 11 It shall be prohibited to collect the wild plants under first class State protection. Where the collecting of the wild plants under first class State protection is necessitated for some special purposes such as scientific research, artificial cultivation or cultural exchanges, it shall be handled in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Wild Plants Protection.
Article 12 It shall be strictly restricted to collect the wild plants under the second class State protection or the wild plants under the provincial priority protection.
A quota system shall be put in place for collecting the wild plants under the second class State protection or the wild plants under the provincial priority protection. The competent administrative departments of wild plants at the county level shall, in light of the resource conditions of the wild plants under the second class State protection or the wild plants under the provincial priority protection within their respective administrative areas, put forward the collecting quotas of the present year for the wild plants that have reached certain quantities of species groups under the second class State protection or the wild plants under the provincial priority protection, which shall be submitted to the provincial competent administrative department of wild plants for approval, upon examination and verification of the competent administrative departments of wild plants of the municipalities directly under the provincial government, and the quotas thus approved shall serve as the basis for issuing the collecting certificates.
Where the collection of the wild plants under the second class State protection is necessitated for some special purposes such as scientific research, artificial cultivation, cultural exchanges, medicine and health and teaching, etc., a written application which contains the species, quantity, location, time limit and methods of collecting shall be submitted to the provincial competent administrative department of wild plants for the collecting certificate, upon obtainment of the comments from the competent administrative department of wild plants at the county level in the location of collecting; where the wild plants under the provincial priority protection are to be collected, a written application containing the same items as enumerated above shall be submitted to the competent administrative department of wild plants at the county level for the collecting certificate.
Where the collection of the wild plants under the second class State protection or the wild plants under the provincial priority protection that are growing in the municipal gardens or scenic and historic spots are to be collected, the consent of the administrative department of the municipal gardens or scenic and historic spots must be obtained prior to the application for a collecting certificate in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 3 of this Article.
The competent administrative department of wild plants shall, after the issuance of the collecting certificates, send duplicates of the relevant documents to the department of environmental protection for the record.
The collecting certificates for the wild plants under the provincial priority protection shall be printed uniformly by the provincial competent administrative department of wild plants.
It shall be forbidden to forge, alter, sell or transfer the collecting certificates of wild plants.
Article 13 The entities and individuals that are to collect wild plants shall collect the wild plants in accordance with the approved species, quantities, locations, time limit and methods, and make appropriate compensation to the guardian entities or individuals, and the amount of compensation shall be decided through consultations between the two parties.
It shall be strictly forbidden to collect wild plants in excess of the approved quotas and to the extermination of the species to be collected.
Article 14 The sale or purchase of the wild plants under the first class State protection shall be prohibited.
Those who intend to sell or purchase the wild plants under the second class State protection shall submit written applications which include the certification documents of the species, quantities and sources, and use, etc. of the wild plants to be purchased or sold to the competent administrative department of wild plants at the county level for its comments thereon and the said department shall then forward the applications to the provincial competent administrative department of wild plants for approval; he who sells or purchases the wild plants under the provincial priority protection shall submit a written application of the same contents as the applications mentioned above to the competent administrative department of wild plants at the county level for approval.
Article 15 The competent administrative department of wild plants shall supervise and inspect the activities of business operation and utilization of the wild plants under the second class State protection and those under the provincial priority protection.
Article 16 The legitimate rights and interests of the entities and individuals that are engaged in the introduction of exotic wild plants, the cultivation and development of wild plants according to law shall be protected by law.
The entities and individuals that are engaged in the production and operation of the artificially cultivated plants which are of the same species as the wild plants shall approach the competent administrative department of wild plants at the county level for the record.
Article 17 The export of the wild plants under the provincial priority protection shall be approved by the provincial competent administrative department of wild plants. The provincial competent administrative department of wild plants shall copy the relevant export documents of wild plants to the provincial department of environmental protection.
Article 18 Foreigners may not collect or purchase the wild plants under the provincial priority protection within the administrative region of this Province.
Where a foreigner intends to make field surveys of the wild plants under the provincial priority protection within the administrative region of this Province, he must submit an application which includes such items as the place to be surveyed, the route, the timeframe for the survey and the species of wild plants to be surveyed, to the provincial competent administrative department of wild plants for approval.
Article 19 The competent administrative department of wild plants may check the places and tools of collecting, sale, purchasing, processing, utilization, transportation and storage of wild plants, and it shall have the right to withhold temporarily the wild plants the sources of which are unknown.
The entities and individuals to be checked shall cooperate with the inspectors and produce faithfully the relevant data.
Article 20 An entity or individual that has, in violation of the provisions of these Regulations, sabotaged, destroyed or damaged wild plants shall be ordered to rectify; if it/he has refused to do so, it/he shall be fined not less than RMB 1,000 yuan but not more than RMB 5,000 yuan by the competent administrative department of wild plants; if a crime is constituted, it/he shall be investigated for criminal liability according to law.
An entity or individual that has, in violation of the provisions of these Regulations, sabotaged the wild plants protection facilities and signs shall be ordered to restore the facilities and signs to their original shapes and functions by the competent administrative department of wild plants.
Article 21 Where the construction project owner entity has, in violation of the provisions of these Regulations, occupied the original habitat of wild plants, it shall be ordered to stop the illegal act by the competent administrative department of wild plants; if the circumstances are serious, it shall be fined not less than RMB 5,000 yuan but not more than RMB 30,000 yuan; if the circumstances are particularly serious, it shall be fined not less than RMB 30,000 yuan but not more than RMB 100,000 yuan.
Article 22 Where an individual has not collected the wild plants under the provincial priority protection in line with the specifications of the collecting certificate, the competent administrative department of wild plants shall confiscate the wild plants collected and the illegal earnings and may concurrently impose a fine not less than RMB 1,000 yuan but not more than RMB 5,000 yuan, and revoke the collecting certificate.
Article 23 Any individual who has forged, altered, sold or transferred the collecting certificates and the relevant approval documents of the wild plants under the provincial priority protection shall be dealt with by the relevant department in accordance with the pertinent laws and regulations of the State.
Article 24 Where an entity or individual has sold or purchased the wild plants under the provincial priority protection without authorization, the competent administrative department of wild plants and the department of administration for industry and commerce shall, in keeping with their respective functions and responsibilities, confiscate the wild plants and the illegal gains, and may concurrently impose a fine up to 8 times the illegal gains.
Article 25 Any staff member of the competent administrative department of wild plants who has committed any of the following acts shall be given an administrative sanction; if a crime is constituted, he shall be investigated for criminal liabilities according to law;
(1) Having failed to approve and issue the collecting certificates in accordance with the relevant provisions;
(2)Having failed to handle the approval procedures pertaining to the sale and purchase of wild plants in accordance with the relevant provisions;
(3)The failure to perform his function of administration and supervision according to law has resulted in serious damages to wild plants; or
(4)Other acts whereby he has abused his powers, neglected his duties or bent the law for personal gains.
Article 26 The wild plants tracked down by the administrative law enforcement departments and the judicial departments shall be transferred to the competent administrative departments of wild plants at the same level for disposal.
Article 27 These Regulations shall be effective as of July 1, 2007.