FOREST TRANSPLANT:An ecologist said TMSC’s plan to relocate 150,000 trees to make way for a foundry would overwhelm municipal efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions

Taipei Times
Date: May 25, 2015
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

More than 1,000 Taichung residents yesterday protested against a move by the Taichung City Government to allow Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to relocate more than 150,000 trees on Dadu Mountain (大肚山) for the firm’s 18-inch wafer foundry in the Central Taiwan Science Park.

Braving the rain, the demonstrators called on the city government to block the tree relocation plan, saying that most trees relocated in the past to accommodate large construction projects have died.

They said that the move would impede carbon dioxide reduction and intensify global warming, adding that the move posed risks to the local ecology.

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in March approved TSMC’s expansion plan, saying that forests on the expansion site were largely “artificial forests” and that relocating them would not threaten the ecology.     [FULL  STORY]