The Supreme Court is leaning toward a decision that would permit the hunting of wildlife by Aboriginal communities as part of their traditional practices during customary events and harvest celebrations, as the court on Thursday conducted an extraordinary appeal hearing into the case of a Bunun Aborigine convicted of illegal firearm possession and poaching.
In a first for the Supreme Court, the hearing was broadcast live online as the defendant, Tama Talum, also known by his Chinese name, Wang Guang-lu (王光祿), attended the hearing accompanied by his mother, who both come from a village in Taitung County.
Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Icyang Parod also testified at the hearing. Icyang said he wanted to defend the rights of Aborigines to hunt wild animals, as it is a traditional practice handed down by generations of their ancestors.
Photo: Liu Hsin-De, Taipei Times
Presiding Judge Hung Chang-hung (洪昌宏) said that during the deliberation into Talum’s case, the judges would decide whether to loosen the restrictions on firearms and hunting by Aboriginal communities.
Legal experts said that since the Supreme Court’s ruling and its interpretations of the law are considered legally binding for lower courts, the lifting of the restrictions would allow Aborigines to hunt wildlife in the nation’s forests and mountainous areas.
Talum, 57, was considered to have broken the law by poaching wild animals, contravening the Act Controlling Guns, Knives and Ammunition (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) and the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法), with the High Court last year upholding the earlier conviction and handing him a prison sentence of three-and-a-half years.
Talum was arrested in August 2013 in possession of two dead animals, a Formosan serow and a Reeves’ muntjac, along with a modified rifle.
At his trial, Talum said that he had killed the animals to provide meat for his 94-year-old mother, who was ill at home and wanted to eat the meat as a treat.
His lawyer argued that Talum was entitled to hunt and practice traditional Bunun culture under the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民基本法), which was promulgated in 2005, and its subsequent amendments.
After his conviction by the High Court, Prosecutor-General Yen Ta-ho (顏大和) filed an extraordinary appeal on Talum’s behalf in December 2015.
It is a highly controversial case that has led to conflicts and public discussions pitting the interests of Aborigines against environmental protection groups.
Taiwan Environmental Protection Union secretary-general Chen Ping-heng (陳秉亨) said that allowing Aborigines to hunt wild animals and use firearms under a proposed amendment to the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法) would lead to irreversible destruction of the nation’s ecological balance and the mass killing of protected wildlife.
“In the nearly 10 years we have been carrying out studies, we have found that many of Taiwan’s protected species are being hunted to near extinction. They are being smuggled to China for food and to make Chinese medicine,” Chen said.
Chen Tien-hsi (陳添喜), a university researcher on wildlife conservation, testified last year that “it is difficult to delineate if someone is hunting animals for their use in traditional activities or to sell the meat to brokers and restaurants for commercial profit.”
“My research has shown that since at least 2005, Taiwan’s protected turtles, snakes, pangolin, Formosan serows and Reeves’ muntjac have been hunted and sold to China, and it is happening on an increasing scale,” Chen said.
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