3124 Edition
January 9-15, 2012
Headline News

Reported by Chiu Kuo-rong

Written by Lydia Ma

Candidates contesting for at-large legislator seats in this election, such as Tien Chiu-Chin (DPP), Chiu Wen-yan (KMT), Chang Hsiao-feng (PFP), Chou Ni-an (TSU), and Green Party candidate Pan Han-sheng, took part in a press conference on January 6, 2012 on Ketagalan Boulevard where they signed a statement promising to protect and preserve Alangyi Trail. They also said they would push for securing funds from the national budget to designate Alangyi as a special ecological and cultural area.

The press conference was organized by Pingtung Environmental Protection Alliance, which rallied 19 other environmental groups, to announce to the Ma administration that there were already more than 100 schools, 911 social organizations, and 58,698 citizens who had signed pledges asking the government to scrap plans to build Provincial Highway 26 so as to preserve the remaining 1% of Taiwan’s natural coastline.

Braving wind and rain, these organizations staged a play about endangered whale belugas in Taiwan’s west coast swimming all the way to Taiwan’s east coast to save and defend the natural habitat of an endangered green turtle species along Alangyi’s shores.

According to Pingtung Environmental Protection Alliance CEO Hong Hui-hsiang, this species of green turtle is considered endangered by the United Nations and Alangyi is one of its natural habitats. If the Taiwanese government builds a highway across Alangyi, it can expect to be reprimanded by the United Nations.