The Taitung County Government announced Oct. 5 that it will enact a law on the management of the area’s landscape and architecture, following increasing pressure from civic society to reconsider the recent spate of developments on Taiwan’s east coast.
“We will do our best to protect Taitung’s natural assets, balancing economic development, environmental sustainability and social justice,” Justin Huang, county magistrate, said at a county affairs meeting.
The law will be drawn up in accordance with an act governing the development of Hualien and Taitung, promulgated by the Legislature in June, which grants local government the power to legislate on land administration to facilitate development that suits regional natural and cultural characteristics.
“No pollution should come with any development projects in Taitung,” Huang said.
His remarks came after a high-profile protest by renowned Taiwanese artists in Taipei Oct. 5. Protesters called on the government to help protect the pristine beauty of the east coast from improper construction plans.
Pop diva Gulilai Amit, better known as A Mei, singer songwriter Jonathan Lee, choreographer Lin Hwai-min, and filmmakers Hou Hsiao-hsien and Wei Te-sheng were among those who signed a petition presented at a news conference at the capital’s Huashan 1914 Creative Park.
In the petition, the artists demanded that the central and local governments conduct a substantial review of their strategies for developing eastern Taiwan, which they called the country’s “heaven.”
Some 38 construction projects involving vacation resorts, hotels, restaurants and recreational parks are planned or already under way along the coast of Hualien and Taitung, some even without the knowledge of local people, said Lulu Keng, a spokeswoman for the Taiwan Environmental Information Association.
Protesters urged that the operation and expansion of the Meiliwan Resort on Taitung’s Shanyuan Beach, built by the Miramar Group, be halted. They also demanded other projects be put on hold until a comprehensive plan for the area’s economic and environmental sustainability can be devised, and discussions with residents are held on a transparent and equal basis.
Keng said what citizens are protesting against is not development itself. “They hope to see development possibilities that preserve natural beauty and respect local culture,” she stressed.
Meiliwan, Taitung County’s first collaborative development project between the government and private business on the build-operate-transfer model, was under the spotlight at the artists’ news conference.
Since the BOT contract was signed in 2004, the project, which also takes up hillside land, has been accused of evading the environmental impact assessment review procedure, defying court rulings to halt construction and ignoring protests from environmentalists, as well as claims by indigenous groups that the resort trespasses on their traditional territory.
“Eastern Taiwan is not a place for luxury hotels such as Amanresorts,” said Taiwan’s major hotelier Stanley Yen, also a campaign supporter.
He said a better strategy would be to integrate present tourism resources and aboriginal talents in arts and creativity to create a travel model for eastern Taiwan that features the area’s slow-paced living experience. (THN)