New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) yesterday called for laws prohibiting the sale of wood obtained by contractors pruning urban trees.
At a news conference held by Chen at the Legislative Yuan, Kaohsiung Tree Lovers’ Association chief executive Chuang Chieh-jen (莊傑仁) said that his research shows that tree-pruning contractors benefit from selling wood gathered during work on public trees to mushroom growers, as the NT$12 billion (US$401.31 million) industry requires large amounts of sawdust.
Chuang said that vendors buy wood to process into sawdust and are offering NT$1,600 to NT$2,300 per tonne, regardless of wood type.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Chuang said that it is a well-known method for contractors to increase profit margins, citing how contractors at Kaohsiung’s Jhongsing Park in Hunei District (湖內) separated wood according to its value and placed different piles onto separate trucks.
“I wonder if the aggressive pruning of trees nationwide could be considered illegally selling national property,” he said.
The government should establish regulations to prohibit the illegitimate sale of wood obtained from pruning, Chen said, adding that the Forestry Act (森林法) should be amended to include more regulations on tree pruning and fines for those who breach the law.
Taipei City Tree Protection Committee member Ho Cheng-han (何承翰) said that government agencies view trees as just environmental aesthetics, and are prone to hire contractors at a minimal cost.
They are unaware that excessive pruning of trees could cause the tree to slowly die, which would create a hazard with the risk that the dead tree could fall on a person or a car, Ho said.
Lin Ko-yen (林科言), the Forestry Bureau’s Reforestation and Production Bureau senior specialist, said that driftwood was the result of natural disasters, as opposed to wood generated from tree pruning, which is a result of artificial means.
Wood from pruning trees should be considered government property and the authority hiring the contractor should state so in the contract, Lin said, adding that failure to do so should involve a review from the accounting or ethics departments.
Setting up storage for pruned wood would increase overhead costs for schools and other organizations, Lin said, adding that contracts should state how much wood should be removed.
National Property Administration Division of Take-over and Custody head Tsai Fang-yi (蔡芳宜) said that environmental groups’ concern as yet have no legal basis for redress and contracts can only request that the contractor deliver the wood to be incinerated.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS