A Hsinchu District Court judge has rendered an unusual verdict in an illegal logging case, saying an Atayal man surnamed Chen (陳) “would be punished by ancestral spirits” for harming ancient trees and trespassing land boundaries.
Chen, a resident of Hsinchu County’s Jianshi Township (尖石), was convicted of illegally harvesting burls from the ancient Jhensibao (鎮西堡) cypress forest in the township in 2014 for sales to outsiders, court documents said.
The judge gave Chen a three-year prison sentence commutable to a fine of NT$660,000 (US$21,713).
The fact that Chen carried out further illegal logging activities while on release was cited by the court as an aggravating factor.
Chen’s 2013 illegal logging conviction resulted in a sentence of nine months in prison, commutable to a fine of NT$370,000.
The Jhensibao forest is the country’s largest ancient cypress forest and it has spiritual and ritual significance to Jianshi’s Atayal community in addition to being protected by law, the judge said in the verdict.
For the Atayal people, land ownership is delineated by tribal bloodlines and woodlands not claimed by a tribe are considered common land, but trespassing or logging of common trees are forbidden by Atayal customary law, known as gaya, the judge said.
Violations of gaya are said to be punished by ancestral spirits, but merchants outside of the community offering money have eroded Atayal traditions, the judge said.
The removal of burls is potentially lethal to the centuries-old trees and thus causes irreparable harm to the forest, the judge said.
Township Mayor Yun Tien-pao (雲天寶), an Atayal, said his people believe all trees are blessed by ancestral spirits and all trees more than 100 years old are considered divine.
“The ancient law proscribes cutting down a big tree. If we must cut down a tree, sacrifices to ancestral spirits must be performed. An Atayal who harms a divine tree that is hundreds or thousands of years old would surely be punished by ancestral spirits,” Yun said.
The Forestry Bureau said it has investigated more than 2,000 illegal logging cases over the past five years and confiscated more than 5,900m3 of lumber worth about NT$1.78 billion.
It is difficult to gauge the actual level of illegal logging, but in recent years signs of illegal logging have decreased, sparking hopes that the bureau has the problem under control, Deputy Director of Forestry Yang Hung-chih (楊宏志) said.
The theft of precious wood is punishable by a maximum sentence of 10 years and six months in prison, and a concurrent fine between 10 and 20 times the value of the illegally obtained wood, Yang said.
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