Pingtung's Green Iguanas 'Increasing Despite Capture Efforts'? Councilor Points Out Prevention Loopholes, Calls for Farmers to E

Pingtung County is facing a surge in green iguanas, with a perplexing situation where they seem to be 'increasing despite capture efforts.' During the council session on the 13th, County Councilor Hong Tsung-chi pointed out two major loopholes in prevention strategies: hunters only focusing on hotspots and the issue of 'catching the small and releasing the big.' He argued that since the agricultural damage caused by green iguanas cannot be subsidized as natural disasters, the county government should allow farmers to capture them for rewards to mitigate their losses. Hong Tsung-chi, who has long been concerned about the green iguana issue, revisited the topic during the general questioning session yesterday. He noted that based on capture numbers, there appears to be an increasing number of green iguanas this year. While he commended the county government's 'Bean Protection Project 2.0,' he questioned whether the prevention policies were problematic. He identified two prevention loopholes: first, hunters concentrate their efforts only in hotspot areas, leaving remote regions unaddressed. Second, hunters capture large numbers of juvenile iguanas, seemingly failing to catch adults, which he worries could lead to breeding problems due to the 'catching the small and releasing the big' phenomenon. Furthermore, while the county government's Bean Protection Project has been in operation for over half a month and has captured over 400 green iguanas, Hong's service office's reporting platform captured over 800 in just four days. This disparity in numbers led Hong to question if the county government's reporting system was experiencing issues. Hong Tsung-chi emphasized that he wasn't competing with the county government on who could capture more, but rather that many farmers had reported to him that even when they reported green iguanas to the county government, hunters often struggled to find the exact location due to a lack of specific addresses or landmarks in the reports. This is why he established his reporting platform; as locals, they better understand the locations farmers are referring to, so he suggested that the county government's project should have dedicated personnel to guide the hunters.