The court of Rugao, a county-level city in Nantong, signed cooperation agreements with its counterpart in Chongchuan district and another seven local departments on March 20 to establish a coordinated wildlife protection mechanism, the first of its kind in East China's Jiangsu province.

The province's Higher People's Court set up a "second court for environmental resources in the Yangtze River region" at the Rugao court in January 2019, which has handled the initial trial for environmental resource cases in 21 counties and districts in Nantong (not including Qidong and Rudong), Yangzhou and Taizhou since July 1 last year.

In response to the announcement by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, in February to ban the trade of wildlife and stop the sale and consumption of wild animals in order to safeguard people's health, the Rugao court quickly laid out a plan to establish a coordinated wildlife protection mechanism with local justice and law enforcement departments.

According to the agreement, the nine departments will work together to crack down on illegal trade in wildlife, strengthen monitoring on the implementation of relevant laws and regulations and set up green channels for criminal cases involving wild animals.