A coalition of environmentalist groups yesterday called the Changhua County Government to designate the county’s coastline as a wetland of national importance to protect coastal resources following the passage of the Wetlands Conservation Act (濕地保育法) last year.
On World Wetlands Day yesterday, conservationists gathered in front of the county government building, urging the local administration to recognize the coast — stretching from the estuary of the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) to Changhua Coastal Industrial Park — and help it attain certification as wetlands of international importance.
Changhua County Environmental Protection Union deputy director Hung Hsin-yu (洪新有) said a task force from the Ministry of the Interior rated the county’s Dacheng Wetlands (大城濕地), Hanbao Wetlands (漢寶濕地) and the wetlands at the Jhuoshuei River estuary collectively as wetlands of international importance, which were also ranked the first among 76 wetlands that were evaluated, more important than Tainan’s Cigu Wetlands (七股溼地) and Sihcao Wetlands (四草溼地), the nation’s only wetlands of international importance where endangered black-faced spoonbills live.
“President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) expressed disapproval of Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co’s refinery project on the Changhua coast in 2011, preventing the wetlands from development and eventual destruction, but five years have passed without the wetlands being recognized and coming under legal protection,” Taiwan Environmental Information Association Environmental Trust Center director Sun Hsiu-ju (孫秀如) said.
Taiwan West Coast Conservation Association director Hsu Li-yi (許立儀) said the Changhua coast is known as the major habitat of Far Eastern curlews, a protected bird species, with 80 percent of the bird’s population in Taiwan concentrated in Changhua.
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
DO THEY BITE IT? Cats have better memories than people might think, but their motivation is based entirely around the chance of getting fed Cats can remember the identity of the people who fed them the day before, Taipei-based veterinarians said on Friday, debunking a popular myth that cats have a short memory. If a stray does not recognize the person who fed them the previous day, it is likely because they are not carrying food and the cat has no reason to recognize them, said Wu Chou Animal Hospital head Chen Chen-huan (陳震寰). “When cats come to a human bearing food, it is coming for the food, not the person,” he said. “The food is the key.” Since the cat’s attention is on the food, it
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
TOO DANGEROUS: The families agreed to suspend crewed recovery efforts that could put rescuers in danger from volcanic gases and unstable terrain The bodies of two Taiwanese tourists and a Japanese pilot have been located inside a volcanic crater, Japanese authorities said yesterday, nearly a month after a sightseeing helicopter crashed during a flight over southwestern Japan. Drone footage taken at the site showed three bodies near the wreckage of the aircraft inside a crater on Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, police and fire officials said. The helicopter went missing on Jan. 20 and was later found on a steep slope inside the Nakadake No. 1 Crater, about 50m below the rim. Authorities said that conditions at the site made survival highly unlikely, and ruled
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