Songshan Tree Protection Volunteer Union yesterday accused Farglory Land Development of illegally employing Japanese consultants to remove 33 trees from the Taipei Dome construction site.
The construction site has been mired in controversy since Farglory forcibly removed 54 of the 87 trees lining the adjacent sections of Guangfu S Road and Zhongxiao E Road in April. In response, the Songshan Tree Protection Volunteer Union began occupying the site around the clock to prevent further removal of trees, sparking a stalemate that continues to the present.
“There were a number of areas where the previous tree transplantation project wasn’t careful enough,” Farglory general manager Tang Chia-feng said at a press conference yesterday morning.
Photo: Lin Mei-fen, Taipei Times
The firm had previously been criticized by the Songshan Tree Protection Volunteer Union for removing the trees like “pulling up turnips” (拔蘿蔔) without sufficient care for the trees’ health.
All future tree removals from the site would be done meticulously, said Treegarden Co general manager Kaven Chen (陳鴻楷), whose firm has been hired by Farglory to transplant the site’s remaining trees.
At the press conference, he introduced a team of Japanese consultants, stating that his firm had asked them to evaluate the trees’ conditions and help formulate the transplantation plan. He said his firm would guarantee that 100 percent of trees transplanted in the future would survive.
Treegarden expert Yamashita Tokuo said that all of the previously transplanted trees show signs of extreme stress due to lack of care during the trees’ removal along with poor soil and drainage at the new site.
National Taiwan University professor of plant medicine Sun Yan-chang (孫岩章) said he was skeptical of Treegarden’s claims that it could guarantee a 100 percent transplantation survival rate. Transplantation inevitably opens numerous wounds in trees, exposing them to infection, he said, adding that older trees are particularly vulnerable because they are less vital and take longer to heal. Even when special care is taken during the transplantation process, a loss rate of 20 to 30 percent is typical, he said.
Songshan Tree Protection Volunteer Union condemned Treegarden’s plan. The group’s director Yu Yi (游藝) reiterated the group’s stance that there was no need to move the trees away from the site, and said the group would continue to fight against the trees’ removal.
No decision has been made regarding whether the site’s remaining trees would be removed, said the Taipei City Department of Sports, which is the agency responsible for the Taipei Dome project.
The Songshan Tree Protection Volunteer Union also questioned the legality of Treecorps hiring Japanese consultants to help with the project, stating that the consultants did not possess work permits or visas.
“Because these experts haven’t come to work but rather to serve as consultants, they do not need to apply for a work visa,” Kaven Chen said. He said that the experts would be paid, but declined to disclose details of their compensation terms.
However, the Ministry of Labor’s Workforce Development Agency head administrator Liao Wei-jen (廖為仁) said that consultants must have work permits just like other occupations. He said if the allegations are proven, the firm would be liable to a fine of between NT$150,000 and NT$700,000.
The ministry has no record of Treegarden applying for work permits, said Chiu Yueh-yun (邱月雲) a Council of Labor Affairs official responsible for foreign labor management. However, she said the agency still needed to investigate further to verify that there had been a violation, adding that certain contractual arrangements can exempt firms from the requirement to apply for work permits for foreign professionals.
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