Environmental groups yesterday called on members of the legislature’s Economics Committee to rework the draft amendments to the Mining Act (礦業法) to prevent mining corporations from exploiting Aboriginal property.
While many lawmakers proposed their drafts in previous legislative sessions, the Executive Yuan published its draft on Dec. 7, sparking criticism from many lawmakers and environmentalists over its content.
The Cabinet’s draft is more regressive than the one proposed in July by the Bureau of Mines, Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan consultant Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳) told a news conference before the meeting, adding that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers are allegedly planning to rush it through.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Regarding Article 13, the Cabinet proposed that miners applying for mining permit extensions should undergo a new environmental impact assessment conducted by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).
However, the draft does not require miners to stop their operations during the assessment, New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said, adding that the Ministry of Economic Affairs is the agency that determines whether a mining project can be extended.
The EPA has been reduced to a subsidiary of the ministry, which would be given unduly administrative power to make decisions about mining projects, he said.
The act should not cater to the needs of Asia Cement Corp, Hsu said, urging lawmakers who have received donations from cement makers to withdraw from the review to avoid conflicts of interest.
The Cabinet proposed a new article, 43-2, that would require miners applying for a permit extension to observe the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法) by submitting documents to prove that local Aborigines have agreed to or joined their project.
However, this would mean that their approval is not necessary, Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan researcher Huang Ching-ting (黃靖庭) said.
The government only respects Aborigines when it needs them to perform in big events, but as for their rights to land and natural resources, it can find all kinds of excuses to exploit their property, Legal Aid Foundation lawyer Hsieh Meng-yu (謝孟羽) said.
Regulations regarding Aborigines’ approval and the extension of mining permits were among the most hotly debated subjects during the meeting.
As lawmakers could not reach consensus about many articles, DPP Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉), the committee convener, said that the review is to continue tomorrow and on Thursday if necessary.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS