The Green Formosa Front yesterday urged the government to halt its auctions of valuable wood and to calculate the overall amount of such wood currently circulating in the market.
GFF standing director Lin Chang-mao (林長茂), a veteran environmentalist, said auctions organized by local authorities to sell so-called “floating wood” (漂流木) have resulted in an uncertain amount of legally acquired lumber, because the actual amount in the market includes illegally logged wood and is therefore much larger than the amount sold by auction.
A bylaw of the Forestry Act (森林法) stipulates that a local government may auction floating wood or driftwood gathered within its jurisdiction. It also stipulates that the profits should be split equally between the local government and the central government.
The policy has opened up a backdoor for illegal loggers, who repeatedly use the same invoice during inspections to cover up their crimes, Lin said.
The government should stop the auctions for a couple of years to allow time to inventory all precious woods now on the market — including finished and half-finished wooden artifacts — just as it did when it banned the trading of elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns, Lin said.
In the future, trading of such wood should be carried out in a centralized way, he said.
“This way, all transactions of precious wood will be noted by the authorities. It is the only way to eliminate illegal logging,” he said.
Article 15 of the act, which stipulates that local residents may collect driftwood one month after a natural disaster occurs — for example typhoons and landslides — should be nullified, he said.
This stipulation has allowed unscrupulous loggers to chop down trees during typhoons and bury them along the catchment basins of reservoirs, then ship the wood one month later, he said.
He said the sale of Antrodia cinnamomea, a medicinal fungus, highlights the severity of illegal logging in this nation.
Every business selling Antrodia cinnamomea has stockpiled tonnes of stout camphor wood, where the fungi grow, even though the government has never auctioned stout camphor trees, he said.
Meanwhile, former Tainan city councilor Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) panned the way the bylaw was amended, saying that enforcement has become more lax over the years, encouraging illegal logging.
Referring to a recent incident in which Taitung-based wood dealer Su Chung-shan (蘇中山) and his younger brother, Su Chunug-fu (蘇中福), allegedly harvested a consignment of Taiwan yellow cedar and red cypress logs in Taitung and donated them to a temple in New Taipei City, Wang criticized the Forestry Bureau for interceding with the Su siblings over interpretations of the act.
The donation triggered a controversy over the origins of the logs.
When it was promulgated in 2004, the bylaw stated that the public should not collect any “first class” wood listed by the Forestry Bureau, including Taiwan yellow cedar and red cypress logs.
However, that portion was later deleted by a legislative resolution in 2010 and the bylaw now states that “the public should only collect driftwood that has no economic value.”
According to the bureau, top quality Taiwanese yellow cedar and red cypress logs are very valuable and sell for NT$133,420 and NT$100,825 per cubic meter respectively.
Forestry Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Hung-chih (楊宏志) has previously said there should not be a rush to judgement over the Su brothers’ donation because they “might not necessarily have broken the law.”
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS