Aboriginal villages to get harvest rights in traditional lands

NEW RULES: The Forestry Bureau said the publication of the regulations had been delayed by the failure of the Legislative Yuan to define ‘traditional areas’

By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter





Aboriginal villages are to be allowed to apply to harvest materials from traditional lands within national forests under new regulations announced yesterday by the Council of Agriculture.

“Aborigines have extremely varied uses for forest resources, from food to medicine to other uses, as part of traditional customs, but one thing is common — their needs have an immediacy that made the previous, drawn-out application process under the Forestry Act (森林法) impractical for them,” Forestry Bureau Director-General Frank Lin (林華慶) said.

The new rules will in principle allow for villages to harvest plants within their “traditional territories” (傳統領域) for traditional uses, with the exception of five rare plants protected under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法).

It provides for a streamlined application process under which Aboriginal villages would submit a harvesting plan, along with yearly follow-up reports — while exempting individual villagers from submitting applications and providing compensation to the government each time they take something out of the forests, as is currently required.

Villagers would still be required to provide compensation for harvesting any of 12 types of “precious woods,” such as cypress.

The new rules are meant to implement Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法) guarantees as part of broader Democratic Progressive Party promises to push through implementary laws and regulations for the framework act, which have largely languished since being passed more than 10 years ago.

The Forestry Bureau said that publication of harvesting regulations had been delayed by the failure of the Legislative Yuan to pass legislation governing the definition of “traditional areas” in which tribes would be allowed to collect materials.

Regulations announced yesterday allow village councils to claim their own traditional areas as long as their claims do not conflict with those of other villages.

Villages will be required to demonstrate that the materials have traditional uses, with the Forestry Bureau reserving the right to deny or require amendments to harvesting plans it deems ecologically damaging.

“We’ll conduct inventories of traditional uses in different villages, so there won’t be any new ‘creations,’” Lin said. “Regardless of usage for sacrifices, festivals or medicine, there has to be some kind of definite scope so these rules are not a blank check.”

The rules were intended as a “first step” to help Aborigines move toward becoming “true partners” with the government in forest management, he said.