Expanding Grassland

The grassland coverage in Tibet Autonomous Region has been increasing, said the regional agricultural department.

The natural grassland coverage rate in 2017 was around 45.2 percent, up 2.5 percentage points from the figure in 2010, the regional agricultural and herding department said.

Herding has been banned on 8.6 million hectares of grassland in Tibet, about 10 percent of the total area of natural grassland in the region. The ban was introduced to tackle degradation and retreat of grassland.

In 2016, a total of 3.2 billion yuan ($480 million) was used to pay local herders to protect the grassland and limit herding. In 2017, the Central Government allocated 3.26 billion yuan ($497 million) to compensate the herders.

The number of cattle is limited to 18 million, down from 23 million in 2010, said Xiao Changwei, Deputy Director of the department. closed 2,304 cases since its founding in December 2016, the SPC said on December 25, 2017.

The circuit court accepted 2,880 cases, received 26,219 visits, answered 1,679 letters from the public, and put 1,441 judgment documents online, according to the SPC.

The court paid attention to both judgment and mediation in hearing cases and settled 18 civil cases through mediation, said the SPC.

The court also forbids judges from hearing cases in their home- towns in order to keep sentences fair, said the SPC.

Circuit courts are adjudicatory organs designated by the SPC, and their judgments, orders and decisions equal those of the SPC. Circuit courts mainly handle major administrative, civil and commercial cases which should be heard by the SPC.

The first circuit court was inaugurated in 2015 in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province. The fourth circuit court covers four provinces: Henan, Shanxi, Hubei and Anhui.