201809/06
The Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan announced a draft of the Protected Species list on September 6th, in which fifteen species will be added to the list of Taiwan species while eight will be removed and another fifteen will be recategorized. Of the non-Taiwan species list, there will be eleven additions, 286 removals, and seventeen recategorizations.
This update will remove seventeen species - checkered keelback (
Xenochrophis piscator), common buttonquail (
Turnix sylvaticus), great knot (
Calidris tenuirostris), etc. - from the General Wildlife list and add them to the Protected Species list. On the other hand, eight species - Reeves' muntjac (
Muntiacus reevesi), Formosan rock macaque (
Macaca cyclopsis), masked palm civet (
Paguma larvata), Latham's snipe (
Gallinago hardwickii), brown spotted pitviper (
Trimeresurus mucrosquamatus), many-banded krait (
Bungarum multicinctus), Chinese cobra (
Naja atra), and short-legged japalure (
Japalura brevipes) - will be improving their status from Protected Species to General Wildlife. Non-nature species evaluation is based off the newest list as decided by the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP17). The Chinese crocodile lizard (
Shinisaurus crocodilurus), along with eighteen other species, will be removed from the General Wildlife list and Rare and Valuable Species list and added to the Endangered Species list. All species of the genus Lanthanotus as well as the Ashe's bush viper (
Atheris desaixi) and the Kenya horned viper (
Bitis worthingtoni) will be added to the Rare and Valuable Species list. The eastern puma (
Puma concolor couguar) and five other species will be removed from the Endangered Species list and added to the Rare and Valuable Species list.
In regards to upcoming update to the Protected Species list, the Executive Yuan Council of Agriculture Wildlife Advisory Committee held a meeting on June 25, 2018, in which teams of wildlife experts assessed animals by mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, insects and fishes and give suggestions for modifications. The confirmed conclusions of the discussions were then submitted to the Council of Agriculture for further verification.
The Forestry Bureau has expressed that surveys will be conducted to determine if a species should be removed from the Protected Species list and added to the General Wildlife list. If abnormal changes are found, immediate actions will be taken in response. The lists are reevaluated biannually, but if any given species is faced with an emergency threat, it is possible to call upon experts for an emergency meeting to decide on the best course of action.
Further details regarding changes to the list can be downloaded at the Forestry Bureau’s official website (www.forest.gov.tw. To submit your feedback regarding the upcoming update, please get in touch via the following email address:
wildlife@forest.gov.tw. After the Forestry Bureau consolidates all feedback and completes a full assessment, the final list will be processed through legislative procedures and announced.
Attachments: list of protected species in Taiwan - comparison between official amendment and draft, suggested classification chart for protected species in Taiwan