Animal protection groups yesterday called on the Legislative Yuan to amend the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) or draft a separate law that would provide a clear legal basis for restoration efforts for critically endangered animals.
Government funding for conservation has been cut every year since the act was promulgated three decades ago, the groups said.
“The government has adopted a concerned, but passive attitude toward the conservation of endangered animals, instead of furthering attempts to restore the populations,” the groups said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The government conducts censuses and surveys of animal populations, but that is not enough, said Pei Chia-chi (裴家騏), director of the Institute of Wildlife Conservation at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology.
Survey results show that endangered animal populations are decreasing, and some have become extinct, Pei said.
For example, the Taiwanese clouded leopard was declared extinct in 2015, Pei said, adding that rumors of clouded leopard sightings last year have yet to be proven.
Legislative action is needed to give animal restoration efforts a legal basis and endangered species a chance at recovering, Pei added.
The nation should not focus on research and surveys while dismissing the importance of restoration, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said, adding that amendments should be introduced to specify goals, estimated times of completion and budgets.
Wang and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) called on the government to set aside political differences and work together to push for the amendment.
Taiwan Animal Protection Monitor Network chairman Wang Wei-chih (王唯治) said that the amendment should introduce clauses to strengthen endangered animal conservation efforts.
Amendments are necessary, as the current level of funding has failed to prevent the decline of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin population, which fell from 100 in 2002 to 50 in recent surveys, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association founder Robin Winkler said.
Animal conservation should not only focus on monitoring administrative agencies or the Forestry Bureau, but should also monitor the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which oversee land development, Winkler said.
Chinese Wild Bird Federation secretary-general Lee Yi-hsin (李益鑫) said that the amendment should prioritize animal conservation when considering development around or on natural habitats.
Development efforts should be halted immediately if endangered species are present, Lee added.
Forestry Bureau Conservation Division Director Hsia Jung-sheng (夏榮生) said that the government would take the suggestions into consideration when making policies, while thanking the groups for their help.
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