Courts across South China's Guangdong province had handled nearly 60,000 cases involving the environment and natural resources between January 2018 and April this year, playing an important role in protecting the province's environment and ecology, said a statement released by Guangdong High People's Court on Sunday.

Of the cases, a total of 3,386 involved damage and destruction of environment and ecology, it said. These include illegal mining, illegal hunting and trading of wild animals, causing noise in residential areas, illegal dumping chemical wastes and illegal land reclamation. 

"Locals' awareness of environmental and ecological protection has also been raised further through the completion of the cases involving the environment and natural resources," the statement said.

Guangdong People's High Court has promised to further improve the level of judicial protection to  the ecological environment and urged courts in the province to strengthen the trial of cases involving protection of the environment and ecology. This will protect Guangdong's environment and ecology to better serve the province's economic construction in the months ahead, it added.

Meanwhile, courts at all levels have contributed to ensuring the safety of national natural resources and ecological environment. The courts also have promoted rural economic development and construction of beautiful rural villages in the province after punishing those who  caused environmental pollution and destruction of ecology, according to laws, the statement said.