Activists and lawmakers yesterday called on the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to halt a review of a controversial resort project at Shanyuan Bay (杉原灣) in Taitung County, saying the developer is trying to bulldoze the project without the consent of local Aboriginal communities before the development site is officially recognized as a reserve area.
The Shanyuan Palm Beach Resort (杉原棕櫚濱海渡假村) is the largest development project on the east coast, with a 26-hectare development area — 4.3 times the size of the controversial Miramar Resort Hotel project in Shanyuan Bay, whose environmental approval the court revoked last month.
The EPA suspended the review of the Palm Beach project in July last year, saying the project’s competent authorities — the Tourism Bureau and the Construction and Planning Agency — should clarify the project’s potential conflicts with the Coastal Zone Management Act (海岸管理法), which stipulates the establishment of nationwide coastal reserves by next year.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The EPA’s environmental impact assessment of the Palm Beach project, which is scheduled for today, is once again set to be held amid controversy, with activists calling for the agency to halt the review until coastal reserves and traditional Aboriginal territories are officially zoned.
Lin Shu-ling (林淑玲), a member of an Amis community living in the bay area, said the developer has repeatedly claimed that the development site is not located within traditional Aboriginal territories to circumvent the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民基本法), which requires developers of a project involving Aboriginal territories to acquire the consent of Aboriginal residents before submitting the project application.
Lin read a statement from the Amis community which said the development would have a dramatic impact on the community and the environment, and the project could not proceed without their consent.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Aboriginal communities should also be entitled to lead the planning of coastal reserves, the statement said.
New Power Party Legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal rejected the developer’s claim that the bay area is not an Aboriginal territory, saying the Amis have named different locations of the area that do not even have names in Chinese, suggesting Aboriginal people have lived there for hundreds of years.
“The state cannot invade lands belonging to Aborigines in the name of development, and Aborigines’ rights to know must always be protected. The Council of Indigenous Peoples should weigh in on the case and help Aborigines instruct the government in designating traditional territories,” she said.
“The bay is also known as an important turtle nesting beach and coral reef habitat, and development can harm the local ecosystem, especially when the developer illegally started construction before submitting a project plan. How can we trust such a developer to protect the environment?” Citizen of the Earth consultant Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳) said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS