Academics have urged the Tainan City Government to reconsider the construction of a landfill within Taijiang National Park on the grounds that the location is an important habitat for the endangered Beipu cicada, which are endemic to Taiwan.
There are less than 1,000 Beipu cicada, or Taiwanosemia hoppoensis, left in the wild, cicada expert Chen Chen-hsiang (陳振祥) said, adding that aside from scattered sightings in coastal areas of Taichung, the Taijiang National Park is the main habitat for the cicadas.
Most of the cicadas dwell in a swathe of windbreak trees in the park, most of which are in Chengsi Borough (城西), Chen said, adding that if the trees are cut down, the cicadas could face extinction.
National University of Tainan Department of Ecoscience and Ecotechnology professors Chang Yuan-mou (張原謀) and Hwang Wen-be (黃文伯), and Aletheia University Department of Leisure and Recreation Studies instructor Chuang Meng-hsiang (莊孟憲) agreed with Chen, calling on the local government to reconsider the construction of the landfill.
National University of Tainan Department of Ecoscience and Ecotechnology professor Cheng Shen-yo (鄭先祐) said ecology is precious, especially as the windbreak strip is the main habitat of the cicadas.
Even if the strip was not located within a national park, the local government should not be establishing landfills on coastal areas, Cheng said.
Cutting down the strip of windbreak trees to build a landfill is not in accordance with Tainan’s aspirations to become a “low-carbon-emission” city, Cheng said.
The Beipu cicada is a very special creature from the perspective of ecology and its existence could mean that there are other forms of life within the trees that we are unaware of due to a lack of research, Cheng said.
The academics asked the local government to reconsider its decision and protect the trees, not for the sake of one species of animal, but to protect a unique and special habitat, Cheng said.
Meanwhile, the Tainan Environmental Protection Bureau said that the formation of the national park in 2009 had come after the appropriation of the land to be used as a landfill, which was decided in 2005.
Under the National Park Act (國家公園法), the bureau has the right to use the land as it was intended, it said, adding that environmental assessment procedures were completed last year with no objections.
The total cost of the landfill is estimated at NT$200 million (US$5.94 million), the bureau said, adding that if the landfill were not constructed the only landfill in Tainan could only be used for another year.
Tainan Environmental Protection Bureau Deputy Director Lin Chien-san (林建三) said that as long as there are doubts over the issue, there is the possibility the project would not go ahead as planned.
Other alternatives, such as developing the land, but compensating the ecology in some other manner, or choosing a different site are all on the table, Lin said, adding that the local government is not forcing the issue because all the procedures have been followed.
The city government is willing to communicate with the academics on the issue and work toward a win-win situation, Lin said, adding that the city government also welcomed the help of academics and experts on how the city could resolve its trash problem, while taking ecological conservation into consideration.
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