Environmentalists push for new law

Dozens of environmentalists and ecological conservationists yesterday visited the Legislative Yuan to call on party caucuses to pass the Environmental Protection Foundation Law (環境基本法) during the current legislative session which ends on Jan. 18.

Activists of diverse groups yesterday afternoon visited the offices of the PFP, KMT and DPP legislative caucuses, urging legislators to do their best to pass the law, which has been stalled in the Legislative Yuan for 13 years.

"We don't think legislators should be indifferent to an important law like this," Li Ken-cheng (李根政), director of the ecological education center of the National Teachers' Association, told the Taipei Times yesterday.

The law is designed to provide a framework for environmental protection activities in Taiwan. The legislative goal of this law is to promote public health, raise the quality of life, protect environmental resources and maintain a sustainable-resource base.

Within the draft law, the definition of environment covers both natural and man-made factors that affect human existence and development, including air, water, sea, soil, minerals, forests, wildlife, natural relics, cultural relics and natural ecosystems.

Activists from groups engaged in promoting animal protection and ecological education as well as others opposing nuclear power and the construction of trash incinerators, yesterday got together to put pressure on incumbent legislators to pass the law.

The draft law is now 61st in line of the legislature's schedule of 100 bills awaiting passage. If it fails to pass during the current session it will, under recently adopted rule changes, have to be reintroduced into the chamber from scratch, rendering the past 13 years of efforts worthless.

Officials from the caucuses of the DPP, PFP and KMT told the visitors yesterday that they had no reservations in encouraging their legislators to give the draft law their full support.

Environmental activists threatened mass protests if the law was held up by the legislature.

DPP legislator Lai Chin-lin (賴勁麟) said that the final version of the act should be accepted by most legislators because it incorporated the spirit of six diverse drafts of the law proposed by the Environmental Protection Administration and legislators.

Administration officials said that amendments to the Constitution that put equal weight on environmental protection and economic development have been included in the draft law. When economic development has a large adverse effect on the environment, the law will require that priority consideration be given to the environment.

In addition, the draft law defines environmental protection as the shared responsibility of the public, businesses and all levels of government, and it states that the principles of resource conservation and pollution prevention should be adopted by both manufacturers and consumers.

One of the key parts of the draft law is Article 32, which gives individuals or organizations the right to file a lawsuit against government agencies if they are negligent in their duties regarding implementation of environmental laws.