In this case, the plaintiff is the All China Environment Federation, a Non-Governmental-Organization devoted to environmental protection. This case is the first case in China where a civil society organisation helped to cover litigation cost in a case.

The plaintiff sued the Dingpa paper mill for the pollution of the Nanming River and of the Wu River caused by the discharge of effluent from the defendant paper mill facility.

The case was brought in front of the Guiyang Quingzhen People’s Environmental Court. The court ordered the defendant to halt pollution and to take quick measures to reduce the environmental impact of its activities.

What make this case special is that the court allowed the plaintiff to have parts of its litigation costs paid by another NGO, the Two Lakes and Reservoir Protection Fund, which was not taking part into the case.

(Contribution: Case provided by Professor Tianbao QIN, Tang HE, and Han GAO, Research Institute of Environmental Law, Wuhan University, China)