A group of environmentalists on Wednesday urged the government to scrap a construction project by state-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan in Taoyuan’s coastal Datan (大潭) area to save protected algal reefs.
The company is set to sink caissons there by the end of the month as part of its efforts to build a third liquefied natural gas terminal at the Guantang Industrial Park, which would affect the ecosystem where the algae grow, Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政), a leader of the “Save Algae Reefs in Taiwan” movement, told a news conference held by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Jason Hsu (許毓仁) at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
The location of the industrial park is an intertidal zone inhabited by many endangered species, including crustose coralline algae, Pan said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Hsu urged CPC to stop its construction project, citing an Academia Sinica report commissioned by the Council of Agriculture (COA) that shows the endangered crustose coralline algae — probably the world’s last ones — inhabit the area.
“In line with the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法), the COA and the Ocean Affairs Council [OAC] should temporarily designate Datan as a natural landscape area and demand that the company pull out,” Hsu said.
OAC Ocean Conservation Administration Deputy Director-General Sung Hsin-chen (宋欣真) agreed to call a meeting with the Forest Bureau and Taoyuan authorities to address the issue, which the central government has promised to deal with.
Giving Datan a temporary natural landscape status would be an emergency measure to prevent the area from sustaining irreversible damage, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association lawyer Tsai Ya-ying (蔡雅瀅) said, adding that the government should at once start a review to grant it designated landscape status.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
The age requirement for commercial pilots and airline transport pilots is to be lowered by two years, to 18 and 21 years respectively, to expand the pool of pilots in accordance with international standards, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced today. The changes are part of amendments to articles 93, 119 and 121 of the Regulations Governing Licenses and Ratings for Airmen (航空人員檢定給證管理規則). The amendments take into account age requirements for aviation personnel certification in the Convention on International Civil Aviation and EU’s aviation safety regulations, as well as the practical needs of managing aviation personnel licensing, the ministry said. The ministry
RSS