Domestic timber should not be absent: Forestry Bureau Director Lin Huaqing on plantation forests and primary forests

Introduction: In the 30 years since Taiwan banned logging in primary forests, the domestic forestry industry has declined along with it. Overly rigid regulations have made life unbearable for forest farmers. In recent years the Forestry Bureau has begun promoting Taiwan-grown timber, designating last year (2016) as the inaugural year of domestic timber, hoping to revive Taiwan's forestry industry and build a domestic timber brand. But how the regulations should be amended so as to balance forest farmers' livelihoods with ecological balance has become a difficult problem the Forestry Bureau must face.

A roar 30 years ago: the milestone of banning logging in natural forests

The story goes back to March 1988 (ROC year 77), when a hundred university and college professors jointly signed a full-page "Joint Declaration to Save Taiwan's Forests" published in the Zili Morning News on Arbor Day. The following year (1989), Lai Chun-piao, then a photojournalist for Renjian Magazine, published a series of on-site reports on logging in the Danda forest area, exposing the chaos of logging in forest areas. Public opinion clamored for forest protection, the forest protection movement formed broad alliances, and related issues continued to draw attention.

Under this wave of pressure, that year the government announced a ban on logging in all of Taiwan's first-grade natural forests, namely the natural forests of five precious coniferous species: red cypress (Chamaecyparis formosensis), Taiwan hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana), Taiwan fir (Taiwania cryptomerioides), Luanta fir (Cunninghamia konishii), and Taiwan incense cedar (Calocedrus macrolepis var. formosana). This became an important milestone in Taiwan's forestry.

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Lee Ken-cheng / If you were the premier, would national parks and the Forestry Bureau go under the Ministry of Agriculture? The Ministry of Environment and Resources?