Civic groups yesterday urged the public to help preserve the nation’s remaining natural coastline by opposing plans to include part of it into Provincial Highway No. 26 to complete an islandwide highway circuit project.
The 8km long Alangyi Ancient Trail (阿塱壹古道) in Pingtung County was established in the 1870s and used primarily by Aboriginal tribes for travel along the coast. In recent years, it has gained popularity among nature lovers because it follows the last stretch of Taiwanese coastline that is devoid of concrete wave breakers, dykes and blacktops.
However, government plans to construct a highway network circling Taiwan proper would mean cutting through the trail. Protests against the potential destruction of wildlife have been going on since the project passed an environment impact assessment by the Environmental Protection Administration in 2002.
Although the revised construction plan — moving the planned highway 200m inward from the coastline to preserve some ecologically sensitive areas — passed another environment impact assessment in December last year, environmental groups said the project would still be an ecological disaster.
The groups yesterday said they hoped to get 100,000 people to sign a petition by July 24 to preserve the Alangyi Ancient Trail — the deadline for being designated a “temporary nature reserve” by the Pingtung County Government according to the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法).
So far, 38,000 people have signed the petition, the groups said.
Hung Hui-hsiang (洪輝祥), chairman of the Pingtung Environmental Protection Union, told a press conference in Taipei that the county government has only limited resources and authority to protect the ancient trail by extending the designation for another six months, so they hoped the central government would step in to help preserve the natural coastline by prohibiting further artificial construction.
A letter has also been written to each presidential candidate, urging them to listen to the people and protect the coastline.
“Public servants should listen to the masters of the nation — the people — and learn to appreciate our land,” Hung said, adding that “instead of the masters kneeling down in front of the servants for favors, we should stop them from destroying our land and to listen to our voices.”
Hung said the area has evolved into a unique world-class ecological corridor, with abundant and diverse species found in four climate zones within the 60km area.
Endangered species — such as green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) — have been observed in the area, he said.
“Taiwan will become a concrete jungle and the wilderness will be irreversibly destroyed if the highway is constructed,” Hung said. “It is an important link in the conservation of the natural environment in Taiwan.”
Writer Chang Hsiao-feng (張曉風) shared a poem that expressed the tranquility, serenity and purity she felt when walking the ancient trail.
Musician and environmental activist Matthew Lien said that a complete healthy ecosystem should be a connected one, from the seas to the mountains, but the planned highway would be cutting them into separate parts.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
RSS