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.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS