Hundreds of fruit farmers took to the streets yesterday to protest against the government's policy on land rehabilitation, arguing that they were not responsible for the deforestation that has led to numerous landslides.
"It's not that we don't support the idea of rehabilitating deforested land, but the government's policy will deprive us of our livelihoods," said Wu Lian-hsin (吳連興), president of the Taiwan Yuan-ken Association, a farmers' interest group.
After a sit-in demonstration outside the legislature drew no reaction from governmental officials, the association yesterday sent a fax to the press stating that they would set fire to themselves in protest.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The protesters brought two barrels of gasoline with them to yesterday's protest and some farmers poured substantial amounts of the fuel onto the street, tainting the air with fumes.
A violent scuffle occurred when the police attempted to seize cigarette-lighters from the protesters. A man by the name of Wu Lian-hsin said that the protest would last for at least a week if the government failed to answer the farmers' grievances.
In an attempt to address the landslide problem, the government passed regulations two years ago prohibiting the planting of fruit on land above 500m in elevation. Under the new regulations, farmers who lease their land from the Council of Agriculture's Forestry Bureau are required to replace fruits growing above that elevation with trees, and to plant at least 600 trees per hectare.
"In the past, we were allowed to plant fruits. We won't be able to make a living by growing only trees," said Yang Shou-ching (楊淑青), who grows persimmon in Taichung County's Dongshih Township (東勢鎮).
"The cost of growing trees is about ten times higher than the output value, and farmers receive a subsidy of less than NT$20,000 (US$615) per year. Without further subsidization, how can we support our families?" said Wu Jin-tsai (
The Taiwan Yuan-ken Association is asking the Forestry Bureau to reconsider its plan to unilaterally remove any fruit still grown above 500m after April 6.
"The move would affect 300,000 fruit farmers, not to mention workers in related industries such as packaging and fertilizer production," Wu Lian-hsin said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS