The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency on Tuesday unveiled a Web site to combat illegal logging, encouraging the public to take part in forest protection.
Data from the agency showed that reported illegal logging incidents decreased to 58 cases last year from 290 in 2013.
The agency amended the Forestry Act (森林法) in 2015 and 2021, increasing penalties for illegal logging, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) told a news conference.
Photo courtesy of the police
Although illegal logging statistics had been classified, the agency opened it to the public in 2017, in hopes that transparency would promote citizen participation in forest protection, he said.
It has mobilized student volunteers, private hiking clubs and local residents to help prevent illegal logging, with up to 91 mountain communities participating in forest patrols as of last year, Lin said.
Over the past eight years, the agency has shifted its focus from clamping down on illegal logging to preventing such activities, he said.
Illegal logging might seem like a judicial and criminal issue, but it is essentially connected with social and economic problems, Lin said, adding that many illegal loggers — especially frontline workers hired to carry and haul timber — are economically disadvantaged people.
Therefore, illegal logging should be prevented at the source by assisting local residents in establishing stable income through proper usage of forest resources, he said.
Lin also called on people not to buy burl art, as most of it is made from illegally obtained burls.
National Taipei University conservation biology associate professor Chen Shiang-fan (陳湘繁) said that her research team visited 11 prisons nationwide to interview 92 people convicted of illegal logging and analyzed thousands of verdicts.
The research showed that the median linear distance between the loggers’ residence and the illegal logging site was 20km, meaning that many illegal loggers live in areas characterized by the distribution of the tree species they logged, she said.
Where they lived were chosely related to their illegal logging activities, Chen said, adding that nearly one-third of the interviewed prisoners were indigenous people.
The situation was exacerbated by underdeveloped economies in remote areas, dysfunctional families, school dropout problems and substance abuse, she said.
The government must help develop forest economies, and promote transparency of illegal logging information and education to prevent people living in forest areas from engaging in illegal logging, Chen said.
Chuan Chih-hsiang (全志祥), an indigenous representative, said that when he returned to his village in Nantou County’s Danda Bunun (丹大布農) region, he found that illegal logging was common, as poverty drove many people to live on the money earned from it.
The situation improved as the agency began to offer afforestation and forest ranger job opportunities to young indigenous people and helped establish indigenous cooperatives to increase local income, he said, adding that illegal logging declined every year.
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