The Spatial Planning Act (國土計畫法) should be implemented in April next year as planned to prevent flagrant development of public land intended for agricultural use, environmental groups said yesterday.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) and 21 other legislators on Wednesday last week told a news conference that the act should be delayed, citing the failure of nine local governments, including seven headed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members, to submit zoning maps ahead of a deadline.
The central government must also better communicate with the public before pushing the act through, Tsai said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
However, members of 34 environmental groups yesterday urged the government to push through the legislation according to schedule, as doing so would create a basis for interministerial integration of land-planning efforts.
Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan deputy director Huang Ching-ting (黃靖庭) said that efforts to increase the use of green energy have been hampered due to lack of a mechanism to integrate ecological and environmental issues with social and economic development.
The act would allow progress on the issue by facilitating the integration of government agencies and committees, Huang said.
Tai Hsing-sheng (戴興盛), a professor of natural resources and environmental studies at National Dong Hwa University, agreed that the land planning act should be enacted as scheduled, as it would allow better cooperation and discussion of land planning by economy and agriculture officials.
“There are some things that take much time to learn. For example, we learned about the greenhouse effect from more than a century of burning fossil fuels,” Tai said. “However, through adaptive governance and reasoning, preliminary judgements about energy policy can be arrived at, and rolling adjustments can be made.”
Although the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture published separate white papers on land use, integrating their findings would be most effectively achieved through the spatial planning act, he said, adding that the legislation would also facilitate the integration of ideas from experts in energy and other fields.
Liao Kuei-hsien (廖桂賢), an associate professor in National Taipei University’s Graduate Institute of Urban Planning and convener of the Taiwan Rivers Network, told the Central News Agency that the proposed legislation would help solve the chaos of arbitrary development on land that falls outside the scope of urban planning.
Putting the act into effect is “urgent,” Liao said, adding that a comprehensive review of the legislation would be conducted every five years.
However, Liao said she believes that the current version of the act is not strict enough and would result in the loss of some agricultural land.
Although agricultural output value is low relative to the output of other sectors, agricultural land produces less environmental pollution and other problems compared with industrial land, she said.
“Current planning focuses on the development of artificial intelligence and other high-tech industries, but planners should not put all their eggs in one basket,” she said. “We hope better controls would be put into place so that we do not end up with unrestricted industrial development on agricultural land.
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
PRO-CHINA SLOGANS: Two DPP members criticized police officers’ lack of action at the scene, saying that law enforcement authorities should investigate the incident Chinese tourists allegedly interrupted a protest in Taipei on Tuesday held by Hong Kongers, knocked down several flags and shouted: “Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China.” Hong Kong democracy activists were holding a demonstration as Tuesday was China’s National Day. A video posted online by civic group Hong Kong Outlanders shows a couple, who are allegedly Chinese, during the demonstration. “Today is China’s National Day, and I won’t allow the displaying of these flags,” the male yells in the video before pushing some demonstrators and knocking down a few flagpoles. Radio Free Asia reported that some of the demonstrators
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
RSS