Black-faced Spoonbill Habitat Under Threat: Environmental Groups Urge Chen Chu Not to Build the Road

The Kaohsiung City Environmental Protection Bureau will hold a preliminary review meeting of the task force on the Qieding Wetland No. 1-4 road tomorrow (the 15th). Environmental groups, ecological conservation groups and poets held a joint appeal today, calling on all citizens to write to Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu: demanding that the Kaohsiung City Government stop the Qieding Wetland road project, protect the habitat of the black-faced spoonbill and migratory birds, and create a smokestack-free green economy.

Yang Chun-lang, director of the Citizens of the Earth Foundation, said that Kaohsiung City's efforts to secure the yellow rubber duck, attract tourists and create tourism output are worthy of recognition. But they also want to remind Chen Chu that the black-faced spoonbills that winter in the Qieding Wetland can likewise attract tourists and create a green economy, and are an important asset for Kaohsiung's transformation from an industrial city into a green city.

Yang Chun-lang also called on the Forestry Bureau of the Council of Agriculture, which is responsible for wildlife conservation, to "toughen up" and supervise whether it is appropriate for a local government to "build a road in the habitat of the black-faced spoonbill."

Chen Cheng-wu, chief engineer of the Public Works Bureau of the Kaohsiung City Government, said that the No. 1-4 road is a road planned under the urban plan, and local residents in Qieding have also petitioned for it to be opened. In response to public demand and to improve the local transportation network, the Public Works Bureau studied and planned this road. As for the controversy triggered by the road crossing the wetland, it will respect the review resolution of the environmental impact assessment committee members and has no preset position.