Wed, Jun 10, 2009 page8

• An open letter to Dr Jane Goodall

  • By Pan Han-shen 潘翰聲
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  DEAR DR GOODALL,

  Welcome back to Taiwan, the Ilha Formosa, as the Portuguese called it in the 16th century as they passed what is now the site of our seventh and eighth nuclear power generators along the north and northeast coast.

  I am sure that you must be aware of Taiwan’s magnificent biodiversity, and perhaps you also know that about 30 of the roughly 80 cetacean species in the world swim, or used to swim, in the waters around the island.

  A small population of one of those species, the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, has become a symbol of the severely unsustainable development of western Taiwan in recent years. Research since 2002 has shown that Taiwan’s population of humpback dolphins — which reside in the shallow, nearshore waters from Miaoli County to Tainan County and is distinct and isolated from other populations — numbers far fewer than 100 and is seriously threatened by numerous human activities. Based on these factors, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources listed the population as critically endangered in August last year.

  The main threats are reduction of fresh water flow into estuaries; underwater noise; air and water pollution; habitat loss through land reclamation; and incidental bycatch in fishing equipment. The first four threats are directly related to development projects along and upstream of the west coast, while the last is related to the severe economic pressures brought upon fishermen by pollution of their fishing grounds and a drop in aquaculture production.

  Of course, these threats affect not only the humpback dolphins but all life, including human, in western Taiwan and all those who eat food produced in western Taiwan. It is highly likely that some of the food you will be served during your stay was produced in the many contaminated fields and waters of western Taiwan.

  Indeed, two of the world’s top five carbon dioxide-producing power plants are also located within the humpback dolphins’ habitat, and if expansion plans proceed, a third will be added to that list.

  In response to campaigning by the Green Party and several of Taiwan’s environmental groups for these problems to be addressed, the Executive Yuan (the executive branch of the government) has made the Biodiversity Division of the National Council for Sustainable Development (NCSD), which is hosting this year’s International Forum on Sustainable Development, responsible for coordinating an inter-agency government response to the environmental crisis along the west coast by addressing the threat to the survival of the humpback dolphins.

  However, it is with disappointment that I have to inform you that the government’s response through the NCSD has been utterly empty and ineffective. Only two closed-door interdepartmental meetings have been held to discuss the situation since we started to directly petition the Executive Yuan for action in January last year, nearly one-and-a-half years ago. No action has resulted.

  Even the designation of the dolphins’ “Major Wildlife Habitat” (or critical habitat) under the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法), which is within the powers of the Council of Agriculture, has still not been accomplished nor even debated, although the Biodiversity Division asked for habitat designation proposals at its first meeting on the humpback dolphins, as long ago as August last year. (Only non-governmental organizations responded to this request by submitting a detailed, scientifically based proposal.) A Conservation Action Plan for the humpback dolphins was produced even earlier, in September 2007, at an international workshop in Changhua, central Taiwan, but this has also been ignored.

  As a scientist you will appreciate another difficulty we face. Despite repeated calls by local non-governmental organizations and offers from an advisory group comprised of some of the world’s leading cetacean specialists, Taiwan has ignored all “science” other than that produced by Taiwanese pursuant to government agency or business retainers. There are very few, if any, scientists in Taiwan producing objective, peer-reviewed work on Taiwan’s cetaceans and their habitat.

  The founder of the Taiwan Cetacean Society (TCS) and a professor at Taiwan’s leading university, however, is the person that local academics and the government rely on as the leading authority. As of this time the TCS has been retained by two of the major developers, Formosa Plastics Group and Taiwan Power Co, to conduct surveys and produce reports on the dolphins.

  During a presentation by the TCS representative at the second NCSD meeting on the dolphins, slides on the distribution of the dolphins showed the attending government officials and academics that there were seemingly no dolphins in an area of Changhua County where they are known to swim and for which other scientists had confirmed and published findings in literature cited by the TCS authority in her reports.

  Fortunately NGOs were present and questioned the omission. The presenter responded by saying that her current surveys did not cover the area in question. Coincidentally, this is an area where the government wants to build an extremely controversial “petrochemical park” by “reclamation” of one of the most diverse inter-tidal zones on the island.

  Ironically, two meetings to discuss environmental impact assessments related to the reclamation project were held yesterday, the same day as the opening day of this forum.

  Promotion of highly polluting and fresh-water-intensive development throughout the area is the hallmark of the current and previous administrations.

  While we sincerely hope that useful discussions take place at this year’s International Forum on Sustainable Development, we hope that you will join us in telling the Taiwanese government that actions speak louder than words — that this forum, the humpback dolphin meetings and all other NCSD meetings on sustainable development will be meaningless if the Executive Yuan does not mobilize its agencies to respond with action to the crises under discussion.

  We hope that you will help bring this to the attention of the government and request that action be taken immediately for the sake of the humpback dolphins and the long-term survival of wildlife and human communities throughout Taiwan.

  Pan Han-shen is the secretary-general of Green Party Taiwan.
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