A group of university students and environmentalists yesterday introduced an endangered bird as Taiwan's latest "candidate" in next year's presidential election.
It is a bid to expose the plight of the black-faced spoonbill (黑-接鷺), which is threatened by the passage of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the Pinnan Industrial Complex (濱南?u業區) project near the Chiku lagoon, Tainan County.
"Hei pi" (
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES.
They said yesterday that none of the candidates had so far expressed any concern on the issue, although critics of the EIA have said KMT presidential candidate Lien Chan (
To highlight the problem, students announced yesterday that Hei pi's campaign activities would include an on-line petition against the controversial EIA.
Environmental experts said the ideal candidate for president should be a guardian of the environment, who would not ignore potential environmental catastrophes resulting from the Pinnan development.
"A five-year research project conducted by the National Science Council has shown that the Chiku lagoon is of high value in terms of biodiversity and abundant reserves of fish," said Shieh Jyh-cherng (
"In addition, more than 75 percent of the known spoonbill population spend their winters there. It is one of the most ecologically important areas in Taiwan," he said.
According to bird conservationists, the number of black-faced spoonbills wintering at the Chiku lagoon this year was 520, more than the 363 recorded last year.
NTU students also presented a letter written by Jane Goodall, a well-known animal conservationist, expressing her concern over the passage of the EIA for the industrial complex.
Goodall said in her letter that she felt distressed and disappointed to see that habitats for the endangered bird were disappearing.
Students said that although the EIA has been passed, there were still measures they could take, such as keeping pressure on the government to block developers' progress.
"We hope the Ministry of the Interior will deny the Pinnan Industrial Complex developers' application to change existing public coastal land at Chiku into industrial land," said Chih Heng-chang (?eth>恆昌), an NTU graduate student.
Chih said they would fight against building an industrial harbor at the lagoon, which was part of the Pinnan project.
Objections to the passage of the EIA by the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (EPA,
International bird conservationists attending a conference held by the Council of Agriculture (COA, 1A委會) yesterday also expressed anxiety over the disappearance of black-faced spoonbills' wintering sites caused by the Pinnan project.
They said that pollution from the future industrial complex would damage the ecological system at Chiku lagoon and eventually cause the bird to vanish.
Dozens of international experts from Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the US, plan to visit COA chairman Ling Shiang-nung (林享能) today to express their concern over the Pinnan project.
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