Animal rights activists, environmentalists and other groups condemned the Council of Agriculture yesterday for “making a decision behind closed doors” on importing pandas from China and urged it to hold public hearings on the matter.
“In the past 20 years, applications to import pandas from China were filed on at least five occasions,” the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST), the Taiwan Academy of Ecology, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and other groups said in a joint statement.
The groups said the first three applications filed by the Taipei City Zoo between 1988 and 1991 were rejected after the Executive Yuan and the council consulted experts and international animal protection groups.
In 2005, when Taipei City Zoo filed its fourth application to import pandas, the Democratic Progressive Party government called three meetings with animal specialists and experts, as well as a public hearing to which more than a dozen animal rights and ecological organizations were invited, the groups said.
However, after the Leofoo Theme Park and the Taipei City Zoo filed applications to import pandas this year, the situation changed, the group said.
“We have been completely excluded from the decision-making process,” EAST director Chen Yu-min (陳玉敏) said. “Requests that the council make the decision-making process transparent were never answered. The council has even kept the list of academics who will sit on the application review committee confidential.”
The review committee is scheduled to meet today.
While names of review committee members were traditionally released to the public before the meeting, “the council said it would keep the list confidential to avoid ‘unnecessary’ disruptions and minimize the pressure on the members,” Chen said.
“In fact, the council has said it would announce [today] whether the Taipei City Zoo or the Leofoo Park will be home to the pandas, which shows us that the government has already approved the importation,” she said.
While Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials have argued that pandas from China could serve as “angels of peace” in cross-strait relations, Chen panned the government for politicizing pandas and putting “politics above ecology.”
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS