With the Wetlands Conservation Act (濕地保育法) slated to come into effect next month, residents living near the Fataan Wetland in Hualien County’s Guangfu Township (光復) have recently reported discovering the carcasses of rare and protected species, and incidents of poaching in the area.
A resident surnamed Cheng (鄭), who was taking pictures of birds near the wetland, stumbled upon an Eurasian bittern (Botaurus stellaris), a rare migratory bird, caught in a trap and went to seek professional help to free the creature.
However, when he returned to the site, the bird had been taken and the trap had been reset.
Screen grab from Facebook
Local resident Yeh Kuo-cheng (葉國政) said he found two Asian yellow pond turtles (Mauremys mutica) — a rare and valuable species that is on the Forestry Bureau’s list of protected species — that looked as if they died from eating channeled apple snails that had been deliberately poisoned judging from bottles of pesticide and intact apple snail shells he discovered nearby.
The two dead turtles were adult males of at least 10 years old, Yeh said.
He said the problems of poaching and the excessive use of herbicides and pesticides are rampant in the nation’s wetlands.
Poaching, the use of traps and bird-netting have long been outlawed on the nation’s wetlands, and the authorities have been loose on the enforcement of the Wild Animal Protection Act (野生動物保育法), Yeh said.
Despite its name, the soon-to-be-enacted Wetlands Conservation Act, overseen by the Ministry of the Interior and enforced by local governments, contains only one clause that governs the conservation of wild animals.
The fifth sub-paragraph under Article 25 of the act stipulates that disturbing, poisoning, hunting, mistreating or killing wild animals is forbidden. Violators can be fined from NT$60,000 to NT$300,000, and from NT$100,000 to NT$500,000 in incidents that lead to the deaths of wild animals.
Economic Affairs Department section head Wu Chun-hsiun (吳俊勳) said the act deals mainly with the management of wetlands and land use.
He said that animal protection is not his department’s specialty, even though it is the agency tasked with enforcing the act, and that the department had submitted a request to the Council of Agriculture and the Hualien County Department of Agriculture, asking that agencies with the necessary expertise assume responsibility for conserving wild animals.
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