On August 12, 2025, twelve Chinese Departments including the Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and National Development and Reform Commission jointly released the Guidelines on Strengthening Law Enforcement-Judiciary Coordination to Serve Ecological Conservation and High-Quality Development in the Yangtze River Basin (FF[2025] No. 14), pledging enhanced legal safeguards for the river’s ecological and economic synergy.

The guidelines outline three core principles: prioritizing ecology and green development, strictly implementing the “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” concept; holistic coordination and systematic governance, establishing basin-wide protection mechanisms; and law-based, pragmatic actions, enforcing the strictest legal measures.

Key measures include:

1.Cross-regional Law Enforcement: Supporting joint law enforcement across administrative boundaries and ecologically sensitive areas, targeting pollution, illegal sand mining, and wildlife destruction;

2.Collaborative Ecological Restoration: Promoting “substitutive restoration” for irreversible damages, with cross-regional transfer of restoration funds;

3.Data Sharing: Interlinking enforcement and judicial databases for real-time access to environmental monitoring, case records, and statistics;

4.Diverse Dispute Resolution: Integrating litigation with mediation, administrative rulings, and other non-litigation mechanisms to resolve conflicts.

Additionally, the guidelines mandate regular inter-agency meetings, joint establishment of ecological eco-legal education bases, and nationwide dissemination of typical cases for public awareness. China will also deepen global cooperation on ecological governance with countries along the Belt and Road.