Algal reefs on the coast in Taoyuan’s Datan Borough (大潭) have been designated a “hope spot” by Mission Blue, environmentalists told a news conference in Taipei yesterday, urging the government to curb construction on a nearby CPC Corp, Taiwan gas terminal.
The utility plans to build the nation’s third liquefied natural gas terminal at Guantang Industrial Park (觀塘工業區), but environmentalists warn that the project might affect species in intertidal zones.
The algal reef is the first coastal site in East Asia identified by Mission Blue, an international organization that promotes public awareness of protected marine areas, as being “critical to the Earth’s health,” Academia Sinica Biodiversity Research Center research fellow Allen Chen (陳昭倫) said.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
He and other collaborators in February submitted an application to Mission Blue, whose approval in March after a careful review by acclaimed scientists proves the landscape’s value, Chen said.
Mission Blue was founded by marine biologist Sylvia Earle, who was named by Time magazine as its “Hero for the Planet” in 1998 and is an explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society.
Chen presented a letter from Earle to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) that called for more effort to protect “a unique ecosystem with rich biodiversity.”
“It would be a huge loss not only to Taiwan, but to the world should this reef be destroyed by development,” Earle wrote.
“I sincerely request the government of Taiwan, please against all odds conserve Datan algal reef for the world, for the ocean and for the health of the future generations,” she wrote. “Mission Blue will also do our best to promote the extraordinary algal reef ecosystem to the world.”
The Presidential Office had not responded to the letter as of yesterday, Chen said.
CPC has started landfill work for the project, which has affected the habitat of little terns, although it has not yet affected the reefs, he said.
Approvals for the project by government agencies were flawed, while then-premier William Lai (賴清德) interfered in its environmental impact assessment last year, Taoyuan Local Union director Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政) said.
Groups have filed six administrative appeals against the project and if the Executive Yuan overrules their latest appeal, they would file an administrative lawsuit, Pan said.
China appears to have built mockups of a port in northeastern Taiwan and a military vessel docked there, with the aim of using them as targets to test its ballistic missiles, a retired naval officer said yesterday. Lu Li-shih (呂禮詩), a former lieutenant commander in Taiwan’s navy, wrote on Facebook that satellite images appeared to show simulated targets in a desert in China’s Xinjiang region that resemble the Suao naval base in Yilan County and a Kidd-class destroyer that usually docks there. Lu said he compared the mockup port to US naval bases in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan, and in Subic Bay
Police are investigating the death of a Formosan black bear discovered on Tuesday buried near an industrial road in Nantou County, with initial evidence indicating that it was shot accidentally by a hunter. The bear had been caught in wildlife traps at least five times before, three times since 2020. Codenamed No. 711, the bear received extensive media coverage last year after it was discovered trapped twice in less than two months in the Taichung mountains. After its most recent ensnarement last month, the bear was released in the Dandashan (丹大山) area in Nantou County’s Sinyi Township (信義). However, officials became concerned after the
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
DETERRENCE: US National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell said cross-strait affairs are on the agenda at the US-ASEAN Special Leaders’ Summit The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday thanked the Czech Senate for passing a resolution supporting Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO and other international organizations for the second consecutive year. The resolution was passed on Wednesday with 51 votes in favor, one opposed and 11 abstentions. In addition to the WHO, it also called for Taiwan’s participation in the “meetings, mechanisms and activities” of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the International Civil Aviation Organization and Interpol. In its opening, the resolution states that the Czech Republic “considers Taiwan as one of its key partners in the Indo-Pacific region,” while noting its