On World Wetland Day yesterday, environmentalists urged the Changhua County Government to protect its coastal wetlands, saying it should stop opposing the central government’s plans to designate the zone as a national conservation area.
According to Changhua County Environmental Protection Union members at a protest near the county government office in Changhua City, the wetlands at the mouth of the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) are the largest collection of mudflats in Taiwan, with a total area of 13,269 hectares.
The area contains more protected species of birds than anywhere else in the nation and provides habitats for other species of environmental or economic value, such as the Taiwanese fiddler crab, the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin and Austinogebia edulis, a mud shrimp traditionally served as a local delicacy, the union said.
Photo courtesy of the Changhua Environmental Protection Union
In spite of being nominated by the Biodiversity Working Group of the Executive Yuan as a “national wetland of importance” in 2006 and 2009, the wetlands did not receive the designation due to opposition from the county government, which was committed to reclaiming parts of it for oil refineries, the union said.
Known as the Kuokuang Petrochemical Park, the now-defunct project resulted in the loss of 4,000 hectares of the wetland to land-fill operations, but the county government had since put the construction on indefinite hold and no refineries were built, the union said.
As the county government had apparently abandoned plans to develop the coast for industry after the demise of the Kuokuang plan, it should formally reverse its policy and ask the Executive Yuan to grant the wetlands protected status, it said, adding that 83 smaller wetlands have already been incorporated under the national wetlands protection scheme.
Local residents’ opposition to incorporating the area as national wetlands is unwarranted, the union said.
According to the Wetland Conservation Act (濕地保育法), granting national wetland status to an area does not affect its use by local agriculture, fishing, salt production or construction sectors, and will not interfere with land-use by private landowners, the union added.
Taiwan’s endemic subspecies of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins will certainly become extinct without national efforts to conserve Changhua’s wetlands, environmentalist Wu Hui-chun (吳慧君) said, adding that the population of about 70 dolphins in the area are dependent on Changhua’s coastal wetlands.
Changhua Department of Planning Director Hsieh Chang-ta (謝昌達) said the county is in favor of conserving the wetlands.
Ongoing construction projects on the coast are aimed at community revitalization and are not for industrial construction or urban expansion, Hsieh said.
Many fishermen are opposed to the area being given the status, because they mistakenly believe that authorities would invoke the act to deny them rights to catch or farm fish, Changhua Department of City and Tourism Director Tien Fei-peng (田飛鵬) said.
While local fishermen and fish farmers are required to register fishing operations at sea near a national wetland, the law was written specifically to protect existing local businesses, Tien said.
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
DEMAND: The government should enact regulations in line with Austria and Germany to incorporate vegan nutrition into school meals, an advocate said More than 1,000 people yesterday marched in Taipei to promote veganism, calling for legislation to incorporate vegan diets into school lunches and the national net zero emissions program. Participants gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building for the march, which was organized by the Vegan Action Network (VAN). Former ambassador to Chad Chiu Chung-jen (邱仲仁), actor Yankee Yang (楊子儀) and actress Cindy Lien (連俞涵) attended the event. VAN member Marianne Chao (趙梅君) said that the campaign aimed to urge the government to promote vegan diets across schools and government agencies via legislation and national policies, which would help build
RSS