Amid a spate of massive damage caused by floods, landslides, and mudflows resulting from frequent typhoons, experts are saying that Taiwan is paying a heavy price for its unwise land use policies.
Now, there are growing calls for comprehensive scientific research on the impact of global climate change on the local ecology, to provide sorely-needed data that can serve as a basis for future land planning. And experts say that the government needs to devise practical economic strategies to ensure that land use schemes, once designed, can actually be implemented.
PHOTO: CHIU YU-TZU, TAIPEI TIMES
Some attribute the increased frequency of natural disasters to an unstable geological structure loosened by the devastating 921 Earthquake, which claimed more than 2,400 lives in Taiwan in September, 1999. Others say that global climate change is the key factor causing extreme local weather. What is clear to all is that the country's past land use planning has left much to be desired.
PHOTO: CHIU YU-TZU, TAIPEI TIMES
Last week, the Cabinet's Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said that, among 52 typhoons and tropical storms that hit Taiwan in the last decade, five have caused financial losses exceeding NT$5 billion in the agricultural sector. The worst was in late July 1996, when Typhoon Herb brought nearly 2,000mm of rain within days to central Taiwan, leading to 73 deaths and NT$14.78 billion in losses.
In early July, floods were triggered by the passage of Tropical Storm Mindulle, which brought rainfalls exceeding 2,100mm in six days to certain places of the Central Mountain Range. Mindulle caused 41 deaths nationwide and NT$9 billion in losses in the agricultural sector.
Yang Chung-hsin (
"Taiwan needs to construct an ecological fund, which can be used for economic incentives or compensation while urging people to give up their mountainous cropland areas," Yang said.
According to the Cabinet's draft of the National Land Planning Act, about 63 percent of 3.6 million hectares of national land, which includes an existing 300,000 hectares of legal crop land in mountains, will be designated as ecological reserves. The draft will be further reviewed by the Legislative Yuan. After its passage, the act will not take effect until six years after it is officially announced.
During the transition, Yang said, forced land acquisition or a ban on planting on legal agricultural land in mountains might cause public discontent.
"That's why we need an ecological fund. Sources can be government loans or part of the budget for public construction," Yang said.
Yang said that the annual budget for public construction exceeds NT$150 billion but that new construction is not necessary. Yang said the government should allocate 20 percent of the budget for ecological conservation.
"Carrying out appropriate land use policies to restore damaged ecosystems takes time, but wise economic strategies can help ensure that the newly-drafted act upholds the spirit of ecological conservation," Yang said.
Chiou Chang-tay (
"What worries us now is that such schemes involve too many governmental agencies, and we don't see a powerful administrative center that can integrate dispersed efforts," Chiou said.
Other development experts said it remains uncertain if all the agencies involved had fully committed themselves to the promotion of sustainable development in Taiwan in the 21st century.
"We see signs that certain agencies are adjusting themselves to global mainstream ideas stressing sustainability. However, I'm still pessimistic about the thinking of transportation officials in Taiwan," Lee Yung-jaan (李永展), an architecture and urban planning professor at Chinese Culture University, said.
Lee blames excessive road construction for the ugliness of rural areas and ecological deterioration in the mountains.
In addition to ecological reserves, Minister Without Portfolio Lin Sheng-feng (
"We have to design our public constructions to be more ecologically-friendly," Lin said.
However, environmental experts said solid scientific research is urgently needed so that the government has access to practical data.
Liu Chung-ming (
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