Taitung County’s Katratripul Village of the Puyuma community called on both the central and county governments to declare the Jhihben Wetlands (知本濕地) a national ecological conservation site, or at least a local conservation site, so that the wetlands could be preserved.
The village council held a meeting with the Taitung branch of the Society of Wilderness and the Taitung Wild Bird Society to discuss how to protect the area, village council chairman Lin Chin-te (林金德) said, adding that a joint group from the three organizations would be visiting the wetlands today.
The goal of the visit is to inspect whether water from the wetlands spills into farmland to the north and affects farming, an issue that had caused disputes among local residents, Lin said.
Photo: Chen Hsien-yi, Taipei Times
Farmers said that water from the wetlands was spilling over to their farmlands, so they dug an outlet to drain the water, but the village said that the wetlands, after months of refilling, had finally returned to a semblance of their former beauty, he added.
The draining of the wetlands caused the deaths of large amounts of fish and shrimp, as well as causing migratory birds to leave, Lin said.
The village hopes to talk with the farmers to find a way to balance the water level in the wetlands, he added.
To that effect, “we are bringing the issue to the attention of the county government and hope that a joint inspection can be undertaken,” he said.
“We hope that through our efforts, the Jhihben Wetlands will be among one of the most important wetlands in the county, and together we should talk about the development and conservation of the wetlands,” he added.
“We have also appealed to legislators whose constituencies are in the county to enlist their help in naming the wetlands an important ecological conservation area,” Lin said.
“If our legislators and government are unwilling to help or take no action, the villagers do not rule out staging protests to help ensure Taitung’s most valuable wetland and ecological system — within the traditional territory of Katratripul Village — is preserved,” Lin added.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we