The Study On The Legal Protection Of Peasant’s Environmental Rights

The concept of environmental rights occurs, accompanied by the destruction to environment and the concerns to environmental issues, and has a gradual development with continuing destruction and deeper concerns. Environmental rights are becoming basic human rights for human survival. There’re vast rural areas in china and the way of producing and living of peasants is closely related with the surrounding environment. Thus, it is of great significance for peasants to enjoy the protection of environmental rights. As fundamental human rights, the peasants are the main course of environmental rights.At present, the continued deterioration of the rural environment, more and more "cancer village" caused great harm to peasants’production and life. Peasant’s environmental rights are being eroded gradually. There’re some subjective factors for the phenomenon, such as peasants’knowledge structure, traditional thinking, ability level so on so forth, the institutional factors that the development model of dual structure in urban and rural caused disadvantaged for peasants in the political, economic and legal aspects of the system, leading them make great sacrifices for economic development of China are more important.The paper takes a "cancer villages" in Wengyuan County,Guangdong province as a typical case and analyses the infringement on right to enjoy suitable environment, right to know environmental conditions, right to participate environmental affairs, right to request environmental infringement and the characteristics of infringement as the main body of environmental rights. China’s urbanization and economic development model is consistent with the Todaro model. The defects of Todaro model, the oblique of investment in environmental pollution control, and the backwardness of the rural environment and legal system are reasons for the infringement of peasant environmental rights.To protect peasant’s environmental rights effectively, we need take actions as followings:Firstly, to confirm peasant’s environmental rights in the constitution and legal, improve the "Environmental Protection Law" to the rank of the Basic Law and build the environmental legal system reflecting the characteristics of the protection of peasant’s environmental rights; Secondly, to clear basis for environmental law enforcement in rural areas, establish a team for the practical needs in the law enforcement and improve the incentives and constraints in the mechanism of environmental law enforcement in rural area. Thirdly, strengthening the construction of rural environmental justice, introducing the environmental public interest litigation system, speeding up construction of legal aid system in rural areas and going the road of socialization of compensation for damages of peasant’s environmental rights. Finally, according to "carbon sinks" trading system, continued implemented by World Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December2009, innovating the relationship between pollution enterprises and farmers, eliminating the carbon footprint to make sure peasants’ right to enjoy suitable environment. The protection of peasant’s environmental rights is a huge and complex project. It will take a long time to achieve comprehensive protection.