Taiwan Church News 3208 Edition August 19 - August 25, 2013 Headline News A Plea For Black-Faced Spoonbill: Stop Building A Road Across Qieding Wetland Reported by Simon Lin On August 14, several environmental groups held a press conference, urging Kaoshiung City Government stop their construction planto build a road cut across the famous Qieding Wetland, which is a very important inhabitation for the black-faced spoonbill, which is also academically named platalea minor. About 10 poets from Taiwanese Literature Front Lines Union, a famous literature group upholding to express Taiwanese literature in mother tongunes, were invited to recite their jointly worked out poems, in order to ignite the good old memories about Qieding Wetland once preserved in the mind of the people. Cheng Ho-tai, Chairman of Qieding Humanism and Ecological Association, blamed the existent 6.5 meters wide road, numbered "1-1", had halved the quantities of the wild birds flocked in this wetland as about 20,000 down to 10,000. This is due to the increased traffic and noise scared the wild birds flying away. Cheng stressed the wild birds total, including black-faced spoonbill, would decrease to 5,000 if the road designed as "1-4" is put into construction. Young Jun-lang, Director of Earth Citizen Foundation, expressed his concurrence about Kaoshiung City Government's efforts to boostthe tourism industry by inviting the fashionable Yellow Duckling into this harbor city. But he reminded Mayor Chen Juee that the internationally famous black-faced spoonbill could also attract the tourists to boost a green economics. "To transform Kaoshiung, an industrial city, into a green metropolis, this Qieding Wetland is a great asset", reiterated Chen. He urged theForestry Bureau of Kaoshiung City Government, which is responsible for the wild life preservation, should do their best to make the importance this wetland well known. Lin Kun-hai, Kaoshiung Wild Bird Association, questions the legitimacy of building the road 1-4 to further cut acrossQieding Wetland as the population of Qieding has decreased every year. "What kind of economics behind this road?", asked Lin. The total number of black-faced spoonbill, according to last year's global consensus, iscalculated as only 2,693 left. And more specially, 60% of these world-class wild life treasures prefer to stay in Qieding Wetland. Suffice it to become an "National Wetland" in Taiwan, as well as an "Important Bird Preserve" accredited by Bird Life International, deserving a special care from the government. Lin Sih-chon, Chairman of China Bird Association, said that the cooperation of Taiwan government and the NGOs had received aninternational affirmation, due to their hard works to preserve the black-faced spoonbill in the last decade. If these wild life miracles no more come back because the building of road 1-4, it would be a disgrace to Taiwan. Translated by Peter Wolfe |