Tree-planting to offset air pollution is a distorted practice: afforestation in protection forests instead damages the ecology

"Thoroughly investigate planting trees to offset air pollution - spare the protection forest!" The Taiwan Ecological Society and the Citizens of the Earth Foundation submitted an investigative petition at the Control Yuan at eleven in the morning, demanding that the government review the current "plant trees to offset air pollution" policy; do not take the easy way out by planting new trees in protection forests, which not only destroys the original ecological appearance but also undoes the good intentions of the policy.

The practice of planting trees to offset air pollution is distorted, instead damaging protection forest ecology

Under the provisions of the , protection forests are forest land used to prevent water damage, wind damage, conserve water sources, and protect reservoirs and national territory; once destroyed, they will seriously affect national security. Because they are protected by law, protection forests contain rich, pristine forest ecology.

However, according to an April survey by the Taiwan Ecological Society, the "air pollution greening feedback" afforestation promoted jointly by China Steel and the Taichung City Government did not actually create new forest land; instead, it was carried out in protection forests that were already forest.

Moreover, in order to increase the survival rate of corporate afforestation, "weeding and tending must be carried out every two months," leaving the ground beneath the trees completely bare, said Tsai Chih-hao, secretary-general of the Taiwan Ecological Society. Such actions directly eradicate native species living in the forest. For example, the forest originally had Zanthoxylum schinifolium, of which fewer than one thousand remain in all of Taiwan, but they were removed as weeds; although they will still sprout, environmental groups worry they will face a survival crisis.