Council of Agriculture Minister Lee Ching-lung (
Lee said the movement of the pandas from China to Taiwan was an issue for conservationists and other specialists, and that the council would not attach any preconditions to a transfer.
After former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (
Taiwan is a member of the global village, Lee said, and should abide by international animal conservation regulations.
If the Chinese government officially proposed sending pandas to Taiwan, the council would demand from Beijing a panda export permit issued by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Lee said.
As Taiwan has never hosted pandas, the council has maintained a cautious attitude, inviting local and overseas experts to evaluate which organization or zoo is capable of providing the animals with appropriate care.
As soon as Beijing applies to export the pandas, the evaluation team will begin its work. If necessary, Taiwanese officials could visit China to better understand the animals' requirements.
Taipei has been making a great effort to be awarded the right to house the pandas, Lee said, and he stressed that he would be very glad to discuss the issue with Ma.
Officials from a KMT think tank and the Taipei Zoo left for Sichuan Province on Friday to attend a "panda symposium," triggering a battle between Taipei and Taichung to secure the animals.
CLONING
Meanwhile, Lee said Taiwan had scored a major breakthrough in animal cloning by successfully cloning an "economic animal."
After years of effort, Lee said, the council had succeeded in using somatic cells to clone the animal that reportedly has economic and medicinal value.
Lee claimed that the council-developed technology is unique.
However, he would not reveal what kind of animal had been cloned. He only said that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will "solve the riddle" early next month, and that the animals were neither dogs nor cats and of great potential value.
He further said the cloned animals are edible and safe, adding that they are not genetically modified and have instead been reproduced from somatic cells.
Lee said the council had done all the research itself, but some of the team members had also traveled to Britain for training.
"It took seven to eight years to come to this point at a cost of less than NT$100 million [US$3.1 million]. Thanks to the orientation of our research, we have made tremendous headway," Lee said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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