Environmental groups yesterday held a protest in front of the Executive Yuan in Taipei, urging the Cabinet to pass a draft bill on ocean conservation by the end of this legislative term.
“Taiwan is surrounded by the sea and the Pacific Ocean, and it is urgent to pass key bills to protect marine resources and ensure sustainable development,” said Kuo Chia-wen (郭佳雯), board member of the Matsu Fish Conservation Union, Taiwan.
“Key regulations covering the ocean and its resources are laid out in several draft bills, offering different levels of protection and varying control standards, but they still cannot ensure full conservation and protection of marine ecosystems,” she said.
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
Only the draft Marine Industry Development bill (海洋產業發展條例) has passed a third reading in the legislature, while the most important one — a bill on ocean conservation — is still awaiting a proposal from the Executive Yuan, she added.
“Taiwan’s coral reefs in coastal areas are under severe threat due to seawater warming. With the world’s major oceans in July setting record-high temperatures, many marine species are facing the danger of extinction,” New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said at the protest.
“The waters surrounding Taiwan and our coasts are under unremitting assault due to worsening pollution, degradation due to the construction of offshore wind turbines, overfishing leading to depletion of fish stocks and Chinese vessels engaged in illegal sand dredging,” he said.
“We lack funding and personnel to take up marine conservation work, which is not covered by legal measures that can mete out punishments or have a deterrent effect,” he said, adding that his party is ready with its version of a draft bill.
“We are now into the final few months of this legislative term, but the Executive Yuan has yet to finalize its draft bill. In failing to do so, lawmakers cannot put its deliberation on the agenda,” he said.
Taiwan Environmental Information Association’s project manager Kuan Chun-an (官淳安) said that an ocean conservation bill could help replenish fish and marine resources, so that the fishing industry would not have to contend with dwindling catch or catching smaller fish.
Hopefully, such legislation can fully protect all marine ecosystems, he 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