- Publication Date：06/23/2011
- Source： Taiwan Today
- By Kwangyin Liu
Environmental activists and prominent artists called June 22 for the preservation of Alangyi Ancient Trail, which is threatened by a road construction project on Taiwan’s southeast coast.
According to a plan proposed in 2002, the Directorate General of Highways seeks to complete Taiwan’s round-island road network by bridging the 8.8-kilometer gap from Anshuo in Taitung County to Xuhai in Pingtung County on the 92-kilometer-long Provincial Highway 26.
The project is controversial because it overlaps with the Alangyi Ancient Trail, a historical migration path for indigenous groups and wild animals along the coastline, sources said. The path traverses Taiwan’s only remaining stretch of untouched seashore.
“The trail is Taiwan’s last unspoiled treasure trove of biodiversity,” said Hung Hui-hsiang, chairman of the Pingtung Environmental Protection Union. Taiwan’s public road density is already the highest in the world, he added. “If we choose convenience over conservation, it will be lost forever.”
Sung Quo-cheng, retired professor of geography at National Kaohsiung Normal University, pointed out that sedimentary slump structures in cliffs along one section of the trail are worthy of inclusion in the UNESCO Geoparks Programme.
Activists called for the withdrawal of the plan, despite a 2010 route modification that would set the road 200 meters back from the water’s edge and replace some sections of open road with tunnels.
“Even if the highway manages to leave the coastline intact, it will still block annual migration paths for wild animals,” Hung said.
Film director Chen Wen-pin, musician Matthew Lien and veteran writers Chang Hsiao-feng and Liu Ke-xiang all voiced their support for the trail’s preservation at a Taipei news conference.
Early this year Pingtung County declared the ancient trail an Interim Natural Landscape protected by the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act. This designation, due to expire July 24, may be extended, sources said.
A recent online campaign has set out to collect at least 100,000 signatures in a petition to keep the ancient trail intact. (THN)
Write to Kwangyin Liu at kwangyin.liu@mail.gio.gov.tw
沒有留言:
張貼留言