BEIJING -- China has increasingly used public interest litigation to protect the natural environment, according to a work report of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Over the past five years, China's procuratorial authorities have handled 395,000 public interest lawsuits regarding the protection of ecology and natural resources, with an average annual rise of 12.5 percent, said the report submitted Tuesday to the ongoing national legislature session for deliberation.

A total of 756,000 cases of civil and administrative public interest litigation were filed during the period, marking an average annual increase of 14.6 percent, the report said.

China began to institute public interest litigation on July 1, 2017.