About half of the nation’s marine protected areas are completely or highly protected, the Ocean Conservation Administration (OCA) said on Friday, as it aims to meet international conservation goals.
The findings were from a comprehensive survey last year of all 45 protected marine zones around the nation, conducted for the first time in the agency’s history, it said in a statement.
Among them, seven were considered “completely protected,” while 18 were “highly protected,” it said.
Photo courtesy of the Ocean Conservation Administration
Nine were “moderately protected” and 11 had a low level of protection, it added.
The seven completely protected areas were Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin habitats along the west coast, Kenting National Park, Dongsha Atoll National Park, South Penghu Marine National Park, Wanghaixiang Chaojing Bay, the Fushan Aquatic Organisms Propagation and Conservation Zone, and the Penghu South Sea Columnar Basalt Nature Reserve.
These reserves have comprehensive management plans, regular ecological surveys and complete fishing bans, the OCA said.
The poorly preserved areas have labor shortages and lack resources to assist with conservation, it said.
The OCA in 2021 surveyed 22 zones after establishing a set of evaluation criteria, it said, adding that last year was the first time it evaluated all 45 areas.
The point of the survey was not to give points to each area, but to better understand the state of management in the nation’s marine protection areas to serve as a basis for improvement, it said.
For example, after the Shitiping Aquatic Organisms Propagation and Conservation Zone off Hualien County received a poor rating in 2021, the OCA and local communities worked together to draft a plan, and to conduct a survey and patrols for giant clam populations, it said.
The Keelung City Government cooperated with the OCA to conduct patrols in the Keelung City Aquatic Plants and Animals Conservation Area, significantly improving oversight, it added.
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity last year adopted a goal to protect 30 percent of the ocean by 2030, which Taiwan is striving to achieve, OCA Director-General Huang Hsiang-wen (黃向文) said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS