The requirement of "more than five years" may be very hard to reach for many organizations because registration procedures have been open to most organizations nationwide for less than two years, said Yang Sujuan, deputy head of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Research Institute at the China University of Political Science and Law.

Yang said that limiting the number of qualified organizations is understandable given that the law is conservative. But she has concerns about the criterion that an environment agency must have a "good reputation" and said it is unclear as to what a good reputation is and which organization is entitled to give this accreditation.

Another legal expert, however, said the third version actually set more restrictions to the number of accepted plaintiffs, reducing the number of qualified organizations.

Based on a reading of the second draft amendment, at least 30 organizations might have been qualified if all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions established their own environment federations, according to an expert who asked not to be named.

"But the new requirement has shut the door on environmental public interest litigation for all local organizations, including local environmental federations that were deemed qualified in the second draft," he said.