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.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
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An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
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