Print

Mail

wiki links

Academics call for `new relationship with forests'

Several academics on Monday called for significant action to be taken in Taiwan in terms of environmental protection, urging the public to "establish a new relationship with the nation's forests."

The academics made the appeal on the first day of a two-day International Workshop on Global Environmental Governance being held at the Transworld Institute of Technology in Yunlin.

Chang Tze-chien (張子見), a professor at the institute, has initiated an action plan to protect rainforests in Indonesia and organized the conference to call international attention to excessive deforestation in Southeast Asia.

Chang said they were promoting international cooperation in this regard and were planning to take concrete action.

Cheng Hsien-yiou (鄭先祐), dean of the College of Environmental Sciences and Ecology at the National University of Tainan, said that governments, businesses and people worldwide have paid a heavy price for the blind and excessive development that has occurred at the expense of forests.

He called for the establishment of a new relationship between people and forests to break the "impasse that exists between humanity and nature."

Cheng urged countries around the world to put the brakes on deforestation and over-consumption, devote more resources to the study of forests and encourage members of local communities to participate in forest administration.

The conference focuses on global experience-sharing in terms of environmental administration, with several reports being released on subjects such as the state of forests in Sumatra, Indonesia, green consumption, the preservation of endangered bird species and the possibility of technological cooperation between Taiwan and Indonesia in organic agriculture.
This story has been viewed 1178 times.