Ecologists have called Premier Chang Chun-hsiung's (張俊雄) plan to carry out a national ecological afforestation project "unprofessional" and warned that it might damage the ecosystem.
The premier last week put forward the proposal to calm widespread discontent among the people as a result of mudslides caused by Typhoon Toraji on July 29.
According to the Cabinet's project, at a cost of NT$4.8 billion, 10 million trees will be planted on 5,600 hectares of collapsed land in mountainous areas and a 230,000 hectare reforestation plan will be carried out by the end of 2004.
In addition, the Cabinet plans to cut down all betel nut trees illegally planted on 12,000 hectares of land for the sake of land preservation. It also plans to reclaim some state-owned land illegally occupied by betel nut farmers.
Hsia Yue-joe (夏禹九), professor of natural resources at National Dong Hwa University (東華大學), told the Taipei Times that there are better ways to preserve the ecological system in mountainous areas rather than by pulling out betel nut trees and growing other plants within a short period of time.
"Abandon the betel nut fields and the ecological system will soon achieve another state of equilibrium," Hsia said.
Hsia explained that, as long as no herbicide was used, shrubs would occupy the betel net fields and the land would soon thrive.
The Cabinet has been accused by lawmakers of neglecting the farmers' rights in planning to wipe out betel nut fields.
Hsia told the Taipei Times that it was time to review the area's land management policy.
He said that the government should adopt both engineering and ecological methods to solve problems. In villages or towns which have been around for an extended period of time, Hsia said, the government should adopt engineering methods that ensured people's safety.
"But in areas strongly affected by mudslides, the government should limit human activities as much as possible," said Hsia, adding that the measure would offer nature an opportunity to recover on its own.
Although the Cabinet is proud of the benefits its ambitious reforestation project might offer, which it says will give the unemployed 400,000 days of work, ecologists said that the problems of land mismanagement should be resolved in a much more comprehensive way. They said that creating artificial forests is unnatural and might damage land inadvertently.
"Carrying out an `afforestation movement' in the name of ecological preservation to solve environmental problems, or to appease the public, is too political," said King Hen-biau (金恆鑣), a researcher at Taiwan Forestry Research Institute under the Council of Agriculture.
King said that the government should have organized a meeting with ecologists and others to come up with a comprehensive solution.
"Most government officials know little about the ecological features of Taiwan, and I would not be surprised if the land was mismanaged," King said.
Taking Nantou County as an example, King said that a responsible government should not have encouraged people to exploit remote mountainous areas because landslides in those areas during earthquakes are inevitable.
He said that the government should view mudslide-related problems from both "long-term" and "large-scale" perspectives.
"Typhoons, earthquakes, steep mountains, rushing rivers and other climatic features make Taiwan Taiwan. Let's face it," King said.
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