Although tensions often arise between environmentalists and developers, the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau has come up with a creative method to try to please both camps.
The bureau announced yesterday that it would create a 10m long ultraviolet-lit passage under an overpass of the Formosa Freeway (National Freeway No. 3), between kilometer marker 251.7 and 252.3, to accomodate the seasonal migration of milkweed butterflies (
A protection net 20m long and 2.5m tall will also be placed next to the northbound lanes of the highway to force the migrating butterflies to fly higher, which will prevent them from being run over.
The measures are scheduled to be completed tomorrow.
The bureau may also close the northbound lanes on the far right during peak days of migration, which is expected to occur from April 3 to April 5, when the nation observes Tomb-Sweeping Day. The bureau will observe the numbers of butterflies and close the lanes if necessary.
The construction will cost the bureau NT$1 million (US$31,250).
Lee Tai-ming (李泰明), the bureau's director-general, said that milkweed butterflies normally migrate from the south to the north of the country in the spring and their migration route usually crosses the freeway's Linnei section.
Lee said the Butterfly Conservation Society of Taiwan had found through field research last year that more than 1 million butterflies could cross the section every day during the Tomb-Sweeping Day holidays.
Research conducted by I-Shou University has indicated that traffic on the freeway threatens the existence of the unique, endemic subspecies.
Lee said that researchers had forecast that the migration this year could begin next Monday and last until April 6, with a majority of the butterflies moving across the freeway between 9am and 12pm.
"This is the first time the bureau has taken proactive measures to protect a rare species in Taiwan," he said.
Lin Tieshyong (林鐵雄), an associate professor in the university's civil engineering department, said the protection measures were "emergency measures," since the migration was set to begin very soon.
Lin said the conservation of milkweed butterflies was urgent. In 2005 more than 1 million per day could be observed during the migration, but the number dropped to 100,000 a day last year.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS