Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society general manager Lin Kun-hai (林昆海) yesterday set off on a 30-day bicycle trip around the nation to network with environmental groups and conduct a field survey of wetlands.
Setting out from Kaohsiung’s Niaosong Wetlands (鳥松溼地), Lin said he plans to visit about 58 wetlands along the nation’s coast on bicycle, but added that he would travel by train from Yilan County’s Dongao (東澳) to Hualien County’s Sincheng (新城) because of a tight schedule and a lack of wetlands on this part of the trip.
Asked about his motivation for the trip, he said that due to a number of controversies on the development of wetlands, he hopes to examine their conditions and problems firsthand.
After the Wetland Conservation Act (濕地保育法) went into effect on Feb. 2, 2015 — World Wetlands Day — the Ministry of the Interior began planning on managing 42 wetlands of domestic and international importance, as well as reassessing whether 41 wetlands of regional importance should be legally protected.
However, many landowners, especially state-run utilities, do not want their properties to be designated as wetlands, Lin said.
The Niaosong Wetlands, which cover about 3.8 hectares, are owned by Taiwan Water Corp (Taiwater) and are maintained by the society.
If the area were to be legally protected, Taiwater’s reservoir management would be restrained by the act and its water supply to Kaohsiung residents would be affected, the company said in September.
The Kaohsiung City Government that month said it supports the protection of wetlands.
It appears that communication between government agencies is ineffective, as the utility and other agencies have different interpretations of the act, Lin said.
Wetlands are fragmented and scattered around the nation, but ideally they should be connected to create an ecological strip that provides better conditions for migrant wildlife, he said.
Lin also plans to visit algal reefs in Datan Borough (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), which has become a source of contention due to CPC Corp, Taiwan’s plan to build a liquefied natural gas terminal there.
He said he would follow his trip, scheduled to end on Dec. 10, with a second one in spring next year, during which he plans to visit wetlands away from the coast and on outlying islands, adding that he hopes to create a comprehensive report.
Bicycle maker Pacific Cycles provided Lin with a bicycle, while he also received financial and equipment support from the Chinese Wild Bird Federation and friends, he said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods