The Life Conservationist Association yesterday said that hundreds of wild animals are sold over the Internet because they are not included in the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法).
At a press conference held with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), the group said that a survey of more than 60 blogs and Internet sites revealed that more than 260 types of wild animal were being sold openly. As the animals are not part of the act, there are no laws to govern or prohibit the sale of such animals, despite their rarity and need for protection, the group said.
Chen Chien-chih (陳建志), a professor of environmental education and resources at the Taipei Municipal University of Education, said the results of the survey showed that the government should seriously consider an amendment to the act that would prohibit such sales.
“Not only are many of the wild animals being sold on the Internet rare and precious, if their owners neglect to care for them and the animals are released it would pose a serious threat to the nation’s ecosystem,” Chen said.
Ting called on the Council of Agriculture to establish a comprehensive set of mechanisms to investigate the sale of wild animals over the Internet and conduct stricter and wider inspections of animals brought into Taiwan to prevent the sale of protected species.
In response, Forestry Bureau Deputy Director-General Lee Tao-sheng (李桃生), who was present at the press conference, said the bureau is doing its best with limited resources and manpower.
“We will gather a committee of experts and academics to discuss expanding the types of species included in the Wildlife Conservation Act,” Lee said.
Lee said that because the act is outdated, the bureau has already begun the process of drafting an updated list of species that should be protected.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS