Activists want environmental action

A social activist yesterday is wrapped in paper notes to protest about environmental degradation. The protest was part of an event held by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union to demand that people's environmental rights be included in the Constitution to better protect the environment. PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES

Activists representing 75 national civic groups held a press conference yesterday to demand that people's environmental rights be included in the Constitution to better protect the environment.

Major propositions of a draft constitutional amendment stipulating people's environmental rights -- authored by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) -- include people having the right to oppose regulations or policies that undermine their environmental rights and that people should have the right to determine or oversee public development projects carried out in their communities.

Other proposals in the draft stipulate that the government should come up with policies and measures to enhance sustainable use of national resources; that "people should be allowed to live in harmony with nature;" and that Taiwan should be nuclear-free.

TEPU Secretary-General Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) said that only when people's environmental rights are written into the Constitution can environmental protection and soil and water conservation be secured under the law.

Ho expressed hope that such a constitutional amendment proposal will allow people to perceive more deeply the importance of their environment and understand that environmental rights are their right.

National Taiwan University Professor Shih Hsin-min (施信民) said there had been a growth in environmental consciousness in the US and Europe since the 1970s and that some US states have even enacted laws governing matters concerning the relations between people and the environment.

Shih said that it was crucial that Taiwan considers incorporating environmental rights into the nation's Constitution.

Meanwhile, TEPU volunteer Huang Wei-chin (黃韋欽), staged a skit at the news conference in which he pasted paper notes indicating mudslides, nuclear waste and mercury-contaminated dirt all over his body.