The Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau and the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau on Tuesday signed an agreement to establish a DNA database of protected trees in mountainous areas to crack down on illegal logging activities.
“This agreement is part of the Investigation Bureau’s crime fighting program for National Land Conservation, which includes protecting preserved forests, cracking down on illegal mining and excavation, and other criminal activities that damage the environment,” Investigation Bureau Director-General Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) said.
The Investigation Bureau and the Forestry Bureau are to establish a DNA database of Taiwan cypress and Taiwan cedar that “will enable us to make fast identification of suspected protected timber and document materials believed to have been illegally logged for prosecutors,” Tsai said.
“More than 2,000 cases of illegal logging in mountain areas have been investigated by law enforcement agencies in the past five years. More than 5,900m3 of timber from protected trees worth about NT$1.78 billion (US$58.65 million) has been illegally harvested in that time,” Forestry Bureau Director Lin Hua-ching (林華慶) said.
Illegal logging of preserved forests has caused extensive damage to the environment, including alpine ecology, water and soil conservation, and has caused the destruction of tourism resources and the function of forests in mitigating the effects of climate change, Lin said.
As part of the collaboration teams from the Forestry Bureau are to collect tree samples from mountain areas, focusing on Taiwan cypress and Taiwan cedar, which are protected under the Forestry Act (森林法), officials said.
“The tree samples would be analyzed using new molecular techniques to pinpoint their characteristic genetic markers and catalogued in a DNA database. The database would identify the DNA markers which show which trees come from a particular area. It would enable authorities to determine the origin of suspected illegally logged timber and boost conviction rates,” Tsai said.
“Prosecution was successful in about 1,500 of more than 2,000 illegal logging cases in the past five years, with about 3,400 people convicted,” Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said.
“However, there were a few hundred cases in which the charges were dropped and most of these were due to problems identifying the timber,” he said.
“When I was younger I wanted to work protecting the mountain forests, but found out rangers have a tough job, that they have to patrol a large area and their lives are threatened by illegal logging operators, so I gave up on that idea,” Chiu said of his aspiration to become a forest ranger.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
RSS