Land Rights of Taiwanese Indigenous Peoples under Natural Disasters: Analysis of Post-Typhoon Morakot Reconstruction from Legal, Historical, and Cultural Perspectives

Abstract

This dissertation discusses indigenous land rights, disaster management law, and recovery problems after Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan, analyzing these issues from legal, historical, and cultural perspectives. The study traces land history of indigenous peoples and development of disaster laws in Taiwan. Based on the history, the study takes post–Typhoon Morakot recovery as an example to examine reconstruction laws and indigenous adaptive strategies in response to natural disaster effects in contemporary Taiwan. By presenting the problems, this dissertation aims to provide suggestions for enhancing protection on Taiwanese indigenous land rights in natural disaster situations. Since the seventeenth century, indigenous peoples’ land has been encroached by settlers and taken by the governments as state-owned property. Indigenous communities were relocated to reach assimilation and development. Only in recent decades, social movements have urged the government to recognize the collective and individual rights of indigenous people. In regard of disaster laws in Taiwan, from 1945 to 1999, disaster effects were handled by executive power through local administrative regulations and presidential emergency decrees, whose function was limited to retrospective measures. After 1999, the legislature assumes a key role in passing laws to establish a disaster management framework, but none of the fragmented disaster management authorities has adequate power, personnel, and resource to comprehensively address disasters. The serious disaster of Typhoon Morakot in 2009 posed new challenges to not only disaster management law but also land rights, cultures, and subsistence of Taiwanese indigenous peoples. The disaster recovery laws required risky land to be designated as Special Zone to restrict land use and relocate residents. The land zoning and relocation process was criticized as hurried, careless, and limited local participation. Yet, the affected indigenous people have strived to adapt to the impact of construction laws and natural disasters. In Namasia District, Kanakanavu and Bunun tribal people dealt with environmental changes by adopting multiple strategies. They resettled, rebuilt at the original site, or returned to their ancestral land to recover from disaster effects and reduce future disaster risks. This dissertation suggests that future legal reform should enhance indigenous land rights by promoting right registration on indigenous reserved land and recognizing their traditional territories. It is important to create an agency fully committed to and responsible for all disasters stages and coordination between government levels and jurisdictions. This reorganized structure will a bottom-up system that local governments, communities, and individuals have greater capacity for and engagement in disaster management programs. Indigenous peoples should be granted more determination on their land to prevent involuntary displacement, as their traditional yet dynamic knowledge will also inspire flexible ways to handle drastic environmental changes.