Environmental Impact Assessment: Whither Taiwan’s wetlands?
Wetlands need to be protected because they filter contaminants from wastewater, soak up excess water, which helps mitigate flooding, and reduces the temperature of the immediate surroundings
By Steven Crook / Contributing reporter
Next Tuesday, Feb. 2, will be World Wetlands Day (WWD). An annual event since 1971, WWD celebrates the signing of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat in Ramsar, Iran in 1971, and tries to raise awareness about the ecological importance of wetlands.
Between 1.2 and 1.6 percent of Taiwan’s total land area is wetland of some kind. The majority of wetlands, including all the larger ones, are on the west coast. Perhaps the best known inland bog is Fataan Wetland (馬太鞍濕地) in Hualien County’s Guangfu Township (光復). Taiwan is dominated by mountains, but very few wetlands are more than 100m above sea level.
Invasive lizards running rampant in Taiwan, threatening biodiversity
12/23/2020 05:12 PM
A brown anole lizard. Photo courtesy of Gong Wen-bin.
Taipei, Dec. 23 (CNA) The brown anole, an invasive lizard species native to Cuba and the Bahamas, has been spreading so rapidly in Taiwan that it now poses a threat to biodiversity, causing damage to ecosystems, a longstanding observer of the species said Wednesday.
The lizard is about 15-20 centimeters in length, around the same size as the common gecko, according to Gong Wen-bin (龔文斌), a project assistant with the Wild Bird Society of Hualien who has monitored the species for over 10 years.
Brown anole lizards, which have very vivid red dewlaps and usually move fast, are extremely hard to catch, but they do not attract much attention because they do not have a major impact on human lives, he said.
2020/12/18 16:45 (Pingtung County Government photo) (Pingtung County Government photo) TAIPEI (Taiwan News) A massive green iguana that frightened a Taiwanese woman on Monday, has been arrested and brought to justice, in southern Taiwan after a long lizard hunt was launched. On Monday (Dec. 14), woman surnamed Liu (柳) posted her harrowing encounter with a giant green iguana as it sunned itself on a guardrail. The post soon went viral, with over 300 comments, including some describing it as a little dinosaur. In response, Pingtung Department of Agriculture Director Cheng Yung-yu (鄭永裕) said that he asked the Wild Bird Society of Pingtung County to try to use lassos to catch it and set up traps near the spot where it had last been spotted. On Thursday (Dec. 17), Cheng announced the rapacious reptile had been arrested and brought to justice, and will be euthanized, thus ending what Mirror Media called