Inappropriate hillside development is one of the main reasons for landslides. More than a decade ago, I inspected ecological conservation work in Hongye Village (紅葉村) and the Twin Ghost Lake (大小鬼湖) in Taitung County together with the heads of the Society for Wildlife and Nature. Deep in the mountains in a nature reserve, we saw Cycas taiwaniana, a special species of cycas, and next to this we saw a large piece of land approved for mining. We called on the government to stop mining in this area because the mines were too close to the nature reserve, but I doubt they heard our plea.
Insufficient conservation in the mountain areas along the South Link Highway (南迴公路) from Kaohsiung County’s Jiasian Township (甲仙鄉) to Taitung and mining developments could be two of the main reasons for Siaolin Village (小林村) being buried and Taimali River (太麻里溪) being overrun with water, causing the Chin Shuai Hotel that rested on a riverbed to topple and fall in the river after its foundations were washed away.
With this fresh in our minds and while post-disaster reconstruction work has not even begun, the government has caused public fear with talk of permitting mining in mountain areas. It is really hard to tell whether the government is working for the public’s benefit or to help boost corporate profits. It also makes one wonder about the sincerity of the 90-degree bow Ma made when he visited affected areas. Was he just putting on an act?
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) has also said that mining development will not be permitted at Kaohsiung’s Banping Mountain, but what about the other 11 locations that the ministry listed? I urge legislators to demand explanations from the government and block decisions allowing mineral mining in the aforementioned mountain areas. If the government keeps brushing these issues aside, I am sure local residents will lose patience and hit the streets in protest.
I urge the legislature to immediately and thoroughly examine the blocked national land development plan (國土計劃法), the homeland restoration act (國土復育條例) and the coastline act (海岸法) and formulate related laws to implement policies for national land protection.
Had these three laws been passed three years ago, the floods and damage caused by Typhoon Morakot need not have been so huge and maybe the hundreds of lives lost in Siaolin Village could have been saved.
How many more lessons do we need from Mother Nature? We must stop sitting around watching the government ruin the environment in the name of economic development. I hope the government immediately restricts further development in the mountain areas.
Chou Chang-Hung is a member of the Academia Sinica and chairman of the National Committee of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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