Police remove man from tree after 12 day protest

Police remove man from tree after 12 day protest
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/04/09/2003559187
By Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

After 12 days of “tree-sitting” by environmentalist Pan Han-chiang (潘翰疆) to protect trees at New Taipei City’s (新北市) Chiang-Tsui Junior High School, Pan was yesterday forcibly removed from the tree, while two other activists were taken into custody.

Pan climbed up a tree on March 28 in a bid to protect 32 trees scheduled for removal because of a municipal project to build a swimming pool and underground parking lot on the campus. Tree protection volunteers and Green Party Taiwan members took turns to support him.

The city government rejected the volunteers’ suggestion of reducing the number of trees to be removed and saving a large proportion of the construction budget by reducing what they said was unnecessary construction work.

After 268 hours in the tree, Pan was removed by police officers at about 11am yesterday and sent to hospital.

“I will use all my strength and will to the last minute to protect the ‘sea of trees’ and the community’s old memories with the goal of keeping the trees where they are now and stopping the inappropriate construction work,” Pan said last week.

Video clips showed that before the police reached Pan with an aerial ladder, two construction workers had climbed onto the tree and shaken the higher branches that Pan climbed onto, causing the volunteers to protest against actions that may have put Pan in danger.

Green Party Taiwan members Wang Chung-ming (王鐘銘) and Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) were taken away by the police for questioning, because they were said to be violating the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法).

Other volunteers said they were only holding signs bearing protest messages.

Jiang meets anti-nuclear groups By Lee I-chia / Taipei Times Staff reporter

Jiang meets anti-nuclear groups
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/04/04/2003558763

NUCLEAR REACTION:Activists said that the premier is willing to communicate and listen, but also voiced concerns about a lack of explicit solutions for problems

By Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday met with representatives of anti-nuclear civic groups at the Executive Yuan and agreed that Lanyu (蘭嶼) — also known as Orchid Island — would not become a final disposal site for nuclear waste.

However, the groups said doubts remain on the Cabinet’s plans for dealing with nuclear waste.

Prior to the meeting with Jiang, Taiwan Environmental Protection Union Northern Coast Branch member Wang Chung-ming (王鐘銘) said that before discussing nuclear issues and the fate of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮), “the premier should face the ‘victims’ of nuclear waste and tackle the unsolvable problem of nuclear waste treatment first.”

Of the eight representatives that met with Jiang yesterday, two were from Lanyu, where barrels of low-level radioactive waste have been stored since 1982; two from Taiwan’s northern coast area, where two operating nuclear power plants with spent fuel pools are located and a new plant is being constructed; one each from Taitung County and Pingtung County, which, respectively, have been eyed as a location for a final repository and where another operating plant is located; and two from anti-nuclear environmental protection groups.

“It took us 30 years to meet with the premier, so we want him to promise to deal with the problem of nuclear waste on the island [Lanyu], or we will not give up until it is removed,” Lanyu’s Tao Foundation secretary-general Sinan Mavivo said.

Mavivo said the foundation wanted waste to be moved immediately, a promise that Lanyu will not become a final repository site, and a resumption of activities by a repository relocation committee.

The representatives also urged the government to award “victims” living near nuclear power and nuclear waste facilities compensation, rather than the limited “cash reward” that is given to the districts.

They also want a promise that Article 31 of the Aboriginal Basic Act (原住民族基本法), which stipulates the government should not store toxic materials in Aboriginal regions against the wishes of the local populations, will not be violated.

After a two-hour meeting with Jiang, the groups said they accept that he is willing to communicate and listen to their requests, but although he promised to meet some of their demands, they are still concerned about the lack of a clear timetable and explicit solutions for problems.

They said Jiang also agreed not to make Lanyu a final repository site, to establish a relocation committee convened by a minister without portfolio, to reconsider and discuss changing the name of cash rewards to compensation, and to investigate any illegal activity in the decision-making process for construction of the nuclear waste dump, building dry storage for spent fuel or giving out cash rewards.

However, Wang said Jiang has still not promised when nuclear waste would be removed from Lanyu, and although he promised to look for a site to build the final repository, the groups are not convinced that he will strive to find an appropriate site and that nuclear waste issues would be resolved in the near future.

Activists take turns to occupy trees By Lee I-chia / Taipei Times Staff reporter

Activists take turns to occupy trees  
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/03/30/2003558368
By Lee I-chia  /  Taipei Times Staff reporter


Since Thursday morning, environmentalists and a retired high-school teacher have been taking turns sitting in and hugging trees at New Taipei Municipal Chiang-Tsui Junior High School, protesting against measures to remove 32 trees for a public construction project on the campus.

For the past six years, a proposed swimming pool and underground parking lot in an area with dozens of old trees on the campus in New Taipei City (新北市) has been a controversial issue, as a city councilor and the school’s president support the project, while many nearby residents, teachers and environmentalists are against the destruction of the “sea of trees.”

On Thursday morning, Pan Han-chiang (潘翰疆), head of a tree protection volunteer group, climbed into a banyan tree with Green Party Taiwan member and local resident Wang Chung-ming (王鐘銘).

They remained there overnight in heavy rain, faced with police who were trying to remove them, but supported by local residents, who brought them food.

At 6am yesterday, a retired teacher from the school, Chen Tsai-luan (鄭彩鑾), climbed up the tree and took a turn “tree sitting” as Wang climbed down.

As of 7pm yesterday, Pan had been sitting in the tree for 37 hours.

The Green Party Taiwan said construction workers began to remove the trees on Tuesday, but were forced to stop by the city’s agriculture department for violating standards. The workers continued sawing down the trees on Wednesday, so the volunteers said they had no other option but to try and protect the 32 trees that are due to be removed.

“The tree removal plan is unprofessional, the survival rate of the trees will become very low once their roots are damaged, but the agricultural department did not do anything to rescue the trees,” Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) of the Green Party Taiwan said, adding that hurting the trees is a terrible example to set the school’s students.

Members of the tree protection volunteer group said there are already enough parking spaces in the nearby area and that the construction project would destroy the “Small Vienna Forrest” — local residents’ nickname for the area — which is the only piece of green land with trees in the whole neighborhood.

An official from the city’s agriculture department said yesterday that an examination of five trees sawed down on Tuesday showed that inappropriate measures had been used to remove them, with too few branches remaining, adding that the trees would be treated to try and save them.