Reframing Sustainability in Taiwan: Legal Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

This chapter mainly describes Taiwan’s policies and legal regimes for sustainability and its future prospective in international participation. First of all, along with the economic development, Taiwan gradually established specific authority for environmental governance, being responsible from prevention of pollution to precautionary measures for guaranteeing sustainable use of natural resources. In the approaching future, a new Ministry of Environment and Resources will be installed for a centralized authority and comprehensive governance. Besides, national programs and strategies announced by the Cabinet in Taiwan, accompanying with related laws and regulations, mostly passed by the legislation, played a significant role in implementations of environmental affairs. In a word, Taiwan has shown its capacity and ambition to cope with the need of sustainability in our age. However, because of its ambiguous status in international arena, Taiwan still lacks opportunities to participate in real, official international cooperation for environmental protection and sustainable development. Some sui generis participation is nevertheless envisaged in a long run.