A lawsuit filed against four Chinese mining executives accused of destroying a stretch of forest is shaping up as a test of China's strengthened environmental law and the ability of green groups to make companies more accountable for their actions.
Environmentalists hope the case will prompt a wave of legal action across China, where discontent is rising over a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has spoiled much of the country's water, skies and soil.
The environmental lawsuit, filed at a Fujian court in early January, was the first to be accepted under the new law.