Two environmental groups have become the first non-governmental organizations in China to win a lawsuit that champions nationwide battles against polluters on behalf of the public.

A court in Nanping, a city in the southeastern province of Fujian, ruled in favor of Green Home of Fujian and the Beijing-based Friends of Nature group in a lawsuit against four miners who run a quarry and destroyed a 1.9 hectare forest…The Fujian case was just one of more than 230,000 environment-related lawsuits filed in courts nationwide since early 2014, said Jiang Bixin, vice president of the Supreme People's Court. These cases include about 40 filed by NGOs since January, according to NGO data…Legal resources vary from one NGO to another, which means some battles against polluters have a better chance of winning than others…

It's unclear, however, whether the Nanping decision has marked the beginning of more effective battles against polluters…"The number of environment-related public lawsuits hasn't surged as many expected," said Wang Can, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing…only a few NGOs have stepped forward by filing legal cases since the amendment…Overall, courts have rejected a lot more cases than they've accepted…