An Aboriginal group is calling for legal reforms to allow Aborigines to gather and use driftwoods in the aftermath of Typhoon Soudelor, which swept a large amount of wood into rivers and the sea.
The Taiwan Indigenous Community Territory Union said that timber washed down from areas where Aboriginal communities reside should be considered the property of those communities’ residents, so the government should not claim ownership and auction off such driftwood.
A 2010 bylaw of the Forestry Act (森林法) states that a local government may auction driftwood gathered within its jurisdiction, and the profits should be split between the local government and the central government.
Collection of wood by the public might be permitted only after such an announcement, the bylaw says.
The union’s standing director, Raranges Hoki Na Tungaw, said the bylaw is equal to a spoils system that distributes the proceeds of gathered driftwood equally between the central and local governments, but it fails to mention Aborigines and their rights.
The Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民基本法) stipulates that the central government, in recognition of the Aborigines’ right to land and natural resources, can only utilize resources within areas reserved for Aborigines with their consent, and should involve Aborigines in any such activities and share any profits with them, he said.
He questioned whether the government has ever done so and whether any Aborigine has recovered wood found floating off of traditional Aboriginal communities.
The government has ignored the rights of the Aborigines and has breached the spirit of the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act, he said.
“What we see in driftwood is its possible use, not how much it is worth. Do not spoil Taiwanese Aborigines with the Republic of China’s way of thinking,” union director Kavas said.
Lawya, an Aboriginal driftwood artist, said: “We have lived in Taiwan for a very long time and gathering driftwood is as normal as having a meal for Aborigines. Why do I have to go to the police station to collect driftwood?”
However, the Taitung Forest District Office said the issue concerns national laws and requires communication with the central government.
During those times that the public is allowed to freely collect driftwood, they should only pick logs with little market value, as by law they are required to return grade-one timber to the government, the union said.
The bylaw and the bureau show no regard for the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act and the Council of Indigenous Peoples has either not fought for Aborigines’ right to collect driftwood or fought to no avail, the union said.
The rules regarding driftwood management should be revised to allow autonomy to Aborigines on such issues, it said.
It called for the government to observe the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to stop depriving Aborigines of their resources.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9 am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), a neighboring apartment building tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the site with water to stabilize the groundwater level and then added dirt
RSS