A conservation site for leopard cats would be found before the end of the year, the National Property Administration (NPA) said, adding that it is working with the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau to select a parcel of state-owned land for the project.
The administration prioritizes the use of state-owned land by conservation, public interest and, then, utilization, Director-General Tseng Kuo-chi (曾國基) said.
Conservation regulations issued on Jan. 30 cleared the way for marginal state-owned land to be “adopted” by groups for non-public environmental protection, he added.
Photo courtesy of the Endemic Species Research Institute
Environmental groups have applied to use Chiayi County’s Budai Wetland (布袋濕地) and Tainan’s Cigu Wetland (七股溼地), he said, adding that the groups’ applications would be reviewed by the end of the month.
Groups that pass the review could sign an “adoption” contract and get the land that they need, Tseng said.
The administration continues to work on the conservation of leopard cats, which are mainly found at lower altitudes in mountainous areas in Miaoli and Nantou counties and Taichung, he said.
Residential areas and leopard cat habitats overlap, so the animals are often run over by vehicles or killed when farmers find them preying on livestock, he said.
The administration has asked the Forestry Bureau to identify “hotspots” where the species has appeared so that their breeding areas can be protected, he said.
Pinpointing where sightings happened on state-owned land would help to determine what parcel to use for a conservation site, Tseng added.
If the land is not being used, the Environmental Protection Administration would recommend environmental groups to “adopt” it, he said.
If the land is already being leased, the bureau would implement a reward system to encourage the tenants to engage in environmentally friendly farming practices so that the leopard cats can breed and live safely, Tseng said.
“The earlier conservation is started, the earlier results can be achieved and the earlier the harm done to leopard cats can be reduced,” he added.
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