In an apparent move to alleviate the concerns of Aborigines, farming, logging and land development on mountainous areas higher than 1,500m will be banned, except for those in Aboriginal settlements, according to a special bill on land conservation approved by the Executive Yuan yesterday.
Four state-run farms located on mountainous areas would have to go fallow within three years.
Under the special draft bill on land restoration and conservation (
Category one areas are those higher than 1,500m, where farming, logging and land development will be banned.
Farmland must be allowed to go fallow and existing buildings or facilities will have to be demolished within five to 15 years.
Certain exceptions will be allowed, however. These include Aboriginal settlements with more than 30 families, facilities for conservation, study or tourism, Aboriginal historical relics, defense facilities and public facilities.
Category two would cover mountainous areas between 500m and 1,500m. New farming or new developments will be banned, but existing legal operators will be allowed to remain.
Category three areas include mountainous areas lower than 500m. Any land developments must be based on sustainable development and local governments are required to regularly review their development policies and obtain permission from the central government for developing land.
The draft also recommends spending NT$100 billion over the next 10 years on land restoration projects.
The fund would help Aboriginal settlements that are willing to relocate in a group. The draft stipulates that the central government should find a new place for them to live and help them with employment, education and preserving their traditions and culture.
While some have argued that the bill will jeopardize the livelihoods of Aboriginal people, Chang Ching-sen (
"Statistics show that 99 percent of Aborigines live in mountainous areas lower than 1,500m," he said.
Chang also dismissed talk that compromises had been made during the drafting process.
"There's no compromise. I'd rather call it negotiation, if anything," he said. "Some might have the wrong impression that the bill is not welcomed by the Aboriginal people. Apparently, they've been misled by certain political parties and false media reports."
If the bill passes the legislature, Chang made it clear that the government will not send any more money to fix the damaged section of the Central Cross-Island Highway because of its fragile geology.
Chang, however, said the government will continue to push for construction of a freeway connecting Ilan and Hualien. The project has been criticized by environmental groups as being damaging to the environment.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS