A new debate is brewing over an area in Chiku township (
The area is a promising sightseeing spot, Tainan County Gov-ernment officials said yesterday, but ecologists warned that visiting crowds may upset the balance of nature on the site.
Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (
Foreign ecologists suggested that the pavilions near black-faced spoonbills' wintering site should left alone for quiet bird watchers rather than made accessible to tourists and vendors.
Su said the council's announce-ment of laws regulating the black-faced spoonbill reserve would serve to guide local authorities in how to wisely manage the area.
"We plan to build a research center near the black-faced spoon-bill habitat for ecologists and organizations to further protect the fragile ecological system in Chi-ku," Su said.
The area has been controversial since 1993, when the Tuntex Group and Yieh-loong Group proposed building the Pinnan Industrial Complex (濱南工業區) to promote petrochemical and steel-making industries. Since then, conservationists have protested against the industrial usage of Chiku Lagoon, a wintering site for endangered black-faced spoonbills.
According to conservationists, the world population of black-faced spoonbills is estimated at less than 1,000. The endangered bird breeds on islets near the Korean Peninsula, spending wintertime in places ranging from Japan and China to Taiwan and Vietnam.
On average, about 600 black-faced spoonbills migrate to Chiku.
The Environmental Protection Administration is evaluating the environmental impact assessment the Pinnan project would have on the area, focusing on water supply and harbor usage issues.
Earlier this year Su proposed scrapping the Pinnan project and developing the area as an eco-tourism site, an idea which gained the support of President Chen Shui-bian (
On Aug. 22 in Chiku, Chen said that he would fully support Su's idea to establish a "Nanying national scenic area," arguing eco-tourism in coastal counties, including Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan, should be promoted.
Chen Jin-an (
"We aim to ensure Chiku's sustainability through promoting low-density, high-quality eco-tourism," he said.
At this weekend's conference, Peter Schleifenbaumof the Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Reserve in Ontario, Canada and Terry Brown, professor of Griffith University in Australia, will share their experiences balancing eco-tourism and conservation.
King Hen-biau (
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
RSS