The number of illegal logging cases last year dropped to an eight-year low, but forested areas in the central and eastern parts of Taiwan proper are still frequented by unlicensed loggers, or “mountain rats,” the Forestry Bureau said yesterday.
The cases dropped from 370 in 2011 to 157 last year, which could be attributed to the bureau’s increasing cooperation with judicial and law-enforcement agencies since 2010, as well as amendments passed in 2015 to the Forestry Act (森林法), which increased penalties for illegal loggers, it said.
Data on areas frequented by illegal loggers and their top targets were released ahead of the International Day of Forests today, when the bureau is to hold its annual ceremony recognizing outstanding forest rangers.
Photo courtesy of the Hsinchu County Police Bureau’s Hengshan Precinct
Documentation about precious trees used to be classified as confidential information, but the bureau opened it to the public so that more people can help protect national forests, which cover about 1.62 million hectares, it said.
From 2011 to last year, 65 percent of the illegal logging cases involved theft of tree stumps left by logging activities from the Japanese colonial era until the 1980s, with Taiwan red cypress, Taiwan yellow cedar and Taiwan incense cedar the most frequent targets because of their special texture and aroma, the bureau said.
Stumps are easier to cut and transport, which makes them more attractive to illegal loggers, who often operate near the Beiyi Highway in Yilan County and the Northern Cross-Island Highway connecting Yilan and Taoyuan, as well as mountainous areas of Miaoli, Hsinchu, Nantou and Chiayi counties, including the Alishan area, it said.
Cutting standing trees accounted for just 12 percent of the cases, with stout camphor trees and Formosan China firs being the main targets, while other cases involved precious forest by-products (11 percent), precious driftwood (9 percent) and excavation of special garden tree species (3 percent), it said.
There are always “bigger rats” behind the mountain rats, who collect and sell the timber, the bureau said, urging people to reject wood products from unknown sources to help stop illegal logging.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “[we] appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
RSS