The Forestry Bureau is promoting self-governance of hunting in Aboriginal communities, bureau Director-General Lin Hua-ching (林華慶) told a forum in Taipei on Thursday, adding that biological diversity and cultural diversity are equally important.
Public debates about Aboriginal hunting practices were renewed after a Bunun hunter named Tama Talum was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for hunting protected animals in Taitung County in 2013 for breaking the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) and the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例).
The Supreme Court on Sept. 28 said the sentence could violate the Constitution’s protection of Aborigines and that the trial should be halted until a constitutional interpretation on the issue is handed down.
At Thursday’s forum held in Taipei, Lin called for more dialogue between Aborigines, government officials and activists focused on animal protection and environmental sustainability.
The Wildlife Conservation Act and the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法) were promulgated in the 1980s to conserve natural resources, but they have largely restricted Aborigines’ ways of life, especially hunting, as their traditions were not considered when the legislation was drawn up, Lin said.
For Aborigines, hunting means “learning from their ancestors” and self-identification, said Wkolringa, a Rukai, leader of the Taromak community in Taitung’s Beinan Township (卑南).
The Taromak community has established a set of communal regulations about hunting, which stipulates that members can only go hunting in June, July, November and December, while prohibiting the use of poisons, electric devices and explosives, he said.
Hunters are required to turn in their game to community management, he said, adding that profit-making is banned.
Since 2014, the bureau’s Forest District Office in Chiayi has been working with local Tsou Aborigines to establish communal regulations on hunting, Lin said.
The office is collecting scientific data about local hunting practices to help Aborigines avoid overhunting or breaking the law, bureau Conservation Division Director Hsia Jung-sheng (夏榮生) said separately.
For example, the Tsou have decided not to hunt more than 250 animals per year, Hsia said.
This year, the bureau also plans to work with the Atayal, Bunun, Paiwan, Amis and Puyuma people in Taoyuan, Yilan, Nantou, Taichung, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung to establish communal regulations, she said.
The bureau is assisting them with self-governance rather than implementing regulations in a top-down manner, Hsia said, due to geographical and cultural differences between communities.
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