Nuclear waste facilities on Tribal Land: The Yami's struggles for environmental justice

Abstract

This paper examines environmental justice in the context of nuclear waste controversies on Orchid Island, Taiwan. The Yami's anti-nuclear waste movement is a manifestation of problems of distributional inequity, lack of recognition, and limited participation of the tribespeople in decision making. These are interwoven in political and social processes. In addition, the disputes over the nuclear waste problem between the Yami and Taiwanese groups also show the historical and socioeconomic complexity of environmental justice. This study argues that a democratic and participatory procedure is likely to bring recognition or help the situation of lack of recognition improve, which could facilitate more just distribution. Building partnerships and networking within a variety of indigenous environmental organizations as well as other Taiwanese environmental organizations could help to transform the Orchid Island community and the Taiwanese society in the direction of environmental justice.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks those Yami who participated in the focus groups, and Bronislaw Szerszynski and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier drafts of this article. Funding from Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange is gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

[1] There are four major ethnic groups in Taiwan: indigenous peoples (2%), Mainlanders (13%), Hakkas (15%) and Holos (70%). Indigenous peoples are the descendants of Taiwan's earliest inhabitants, who came mainly from southern China and Austronesia. Mainlanders, Hakkas, and Holos share the Han Chinese identity and have a similar sense of cultural or racial superiority over indigenous peoples.

[2] There is an ocean trench near Orchid Island, and it was considered convenient to throw nuclear wastes into the ocean trench for permanent nuclear waste disposal. However, the plan was subsequently abandoned as the London Dumping Convention prohibited the dumping of nuclear wastes in the sea.