Conflicts between Fisheries and Offshore Wind Power in Taiwan: Legal and Administrative Prospects

Abstract

Offshore wind power (OWP) has become a new emerging favorable renewable energy in Taiwan. Despite the fact that its development in Taiwan seems promising in the near future, it is facing some unwanted challenges recently, particularly the protests from fishers. The purpose of this paper is to understand jurisdiction over offshore areas in Taiwan via analyzing conflicts between OWP developers and fishers in Taiwan and finds that existing jurisdiction over the offshore areas in Taiwan seems to be not supportive to the development OWP. Jurisdiction among different acts is not consistent, and it is not administered by a specific agency. Most importantly, the Fisheries Act allows some specific people or groups to enjoy fishing rights as their property in rem in Taiwan’s offshore areas. To this end, the revision of the current Fisheries Act to set such rights as a privilege should be a must, but the government will need to pay a vast amount of money for doing so. Further, if a “one-shop” mechanism such as the Ocean Affairs Council would be adopted, the development of OWP and the addressing of disputes among different users, particularly with fishers, fishers’ associations, and cooperatives, would be more effective and promising.