"Taiwan's soil is where its citizens build their homes, and mountains and rivers are the island's most treasured resources, so any damage done to the land for profit must not be tolerated," said Premier Jiang Yi-huah after hearing a report by the national land protection taskforce today.
"The shocking images in the documentary Beyond Beauty—Taiwan from Above reveal just part of the looting and ravages suffered by the Taiwanese environment to serve the ends of opportunistic groups. There may be even more tragedies unfolding in places we aren't paying attention to," Jiang warned.
"Hence, I strongly demand that agencies take the initiative to stop all illegal practices that harm the environment and to establish a long-term preventive system to protect the nation's land for generations to come."
The taskforce has followed up on 16 environmental issues revealed in the film, investigating them, confirming whether they have already been addressed and making improvements if they have not been. Tasks that have already been concluded include:
- Clearing away driftwood and debris left after Typhoon Morakot
- Reconstructing Provincial Highway 21 at kilometer 122.6K, particularly by removing temporary road base improvised from cargo containers, as well as Shuan-er Ming Tunnel
- Relocating all 39 households of a tribal village in Pingtung County's Wutai Township by February 20, 2013
- Transforming one of Hualien City's seashore landfills into an eco-friendly park, preventing waves there from causing more corrosion and landslides
Work on other points of concern is progressing as follows.
The taskforce and competent authorities inspected the algal reefs in Taoyuan County's Guanyin Township, which have been polluted by contaminated waters, and proposed to establish a conservation zone to protect both the reefs and nearby fishery resources.
The severity of punishment for each of the illegal bed and breakfasts in the Cingjing area of Ren-ai Township, Nantou County will be based on the legality, purpose and safety of each structure (with the area to be divided into priority zones and protection zones), the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) will finish a geological sensitivity survey of the entire country soon. The premier demanded the MOEA to announce geologically sensitive zones in early 2014 to help competent authorities protect national land.
The Council of Agriculture (COA), Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), MOI, MOEA and local governments are also actively implementing a Cabinet-approved action plan to solve land subsidence problems caused by excessive groundwater pumping in Yunlin and Changhua counties. The amount of land area with continued subsidence issues has been reduced from 1,539 square kilometers in 2001 to 286 square kilometers in 2012.
The film also disclosed that aquaculture farmers in Kaohsiung City's Yongan and Mituo districts and Pintung County have individually installed ducts to tap sea water through sea walls. In response, the COA's Fisheries Agency is promoting the construction of communal sea water pipe systems, and once they are completed, the MOEA's Water Resources Agency will start to remove privately installed ducts.
With respect to the plunder of soil and gravel, statistics show that cases of such theft from rivers and land have decreased from 53 and 212 respectively in 2003 to three and 20 respectively this year.
The government's handling of the illegal quarry in Taichung City's Shengang District was presented as an example of the government's environmental protection measures. The location has already been surveyed by the Taichung City government, Ministry of Finance National Property Administration and MOTC Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau, which have demanded the perpetrators submit restoration plans.
The Environmental Protection Administration has penalized the river polluters in accordance with the law, and it is re-examining relevant laws and regulations with a view to strengthening them.
Upon investigation, scenes of apparent river pillaging in the documentary were found to be depictions of legal land removal as part of the dredging of the Gaoping River.
Mountaintop excavations shown were mines in Yongshi Mountain of Xiulin Township, Hualien County and Taibai Mountain in Su-ao Township, Yilan County (the latter administrated by Taiwan Cement). In order to reduce dust and exhaust pollution caused by their operations, crews have already begun using vertical shafts in the former location and ropeways in the latter. For future mountaintop excavations, the firms at these sites will henceforth obey the volume caps and control measures on marble and cement ingredient mining as well as cement production.
The proportion of Taiwanese cement that is exported decreased from 51 percent in 2009 to 31 percent in 2012 and is projected to fall further, to 20 percent in 2025.
District prosecutors offices, which are under the Ministry of Justice, have recently established taskforces focused on investigating national land violations. Meanwhile, the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office has created its own taskforce responsible for counseling district prosecutors offices on handling cases within their jurisdictions as well as recognizing and actively stepping up investigations on environmental crimes which have triggered public discontent.
Preliminary results have already been delivered on some of the issues highlighted by the national land protection taskforce, while others demand greater effort, the premier said. He asked competent authorities to continue promoting the appropriate, short-, medium- and long-term improvement measures and instructed the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission to review the implementation of these measures on a quarterly basis and submit their report to the taskforce.