"What we are doing is very simple," TEIA Secretary-General Chen Juei-ping explained. "Citizen participation in environmental issues is key to building awareness and understanding of the events taking place around us. By staying informed, we can make the correct decisions for future generations."
The rational expectation that adequate information and access is conducive to ethical decision-making, inspired five young people to create a Web site for the Taiwan Environmental Information Center in April 2000. According to TEIA, the site is probably the most active and largest environment-related one in the Chinese-speaking world, with more than 4,000 visits made for the purpose of reading domestic and international news. It posts timely releases from various outlets, as well as investigations and discussions on issues such as Taiwan's ecology, climate change, new energy, gene technologies and food safety.
In explaining the group's decision to put Taiwan's environmental issues online, Chen stated that environmental protection is basically about the conflict between development and preservation, yet new scientific findings render such issues more complicated and difficult to grasp. This situation threatens to hamper the average person's rights to know about issues that may have great bearing on their lives and properties. "In running the Web site, we don't instruct," Chen said. "We offer information and help people make judgments for themselves."
To broaden its engagement in the public sphere, the center transformed itself into an association in 2004, with staff numbers increasing to 25. The group promotes the initiative of environmental trust and raises funds to help preserve ecologies and historic sites for the benefit of the community. Having conducted active exchanges with similar organizations abroad--such as the U.K.-based National Trust--TEIA used this experience to draft its application for the right to administer and protect an unused orchid of around six hectares in Chenggong Township, Taitung County. After being approved, TEIA designed working-holiday programs and education programs to build public awareness of the area's environmental value.
As the first of its kind in Taiwan, the project was awarded several conservation and environmental grants in 2006. "We hold that environmental trust is a way for the democratization of environmental preservation efforts," Chen said. The necessity of this process is justified by the general distrust of political decision-makers who have vested interests in seeing the environment sacrificed for development, he added. "We have to depend on ourselves when considering the value of preserving a site. Its social and physical heritage is meaningful to us."
For the purpose of pressuring the government to improve its environmental record, while boosting public awareness of pressing issues, TEIA has compiled a top 10 environmental news report each year since 2001. Starting in 2003, such news pieces were selected through online voting. But unlike previous years, 2008 has been a bad one for the environment, TEIA said.
"Sadly, this time around, all of the top 10 news selections are negative," TEIA's Shia Dao-yuan said. "Although they do not go beyond the scope of individual issues, such as development projects, pollution and preservation, the results indicate a failing on the part of the government to map out and implement an environmentally and economically sustainable plan," she added.
Shia explained that several of these issues have repeatedly appeared on TEIA's reports over the years, such as the Suao-Hualien expressway. The government's controversial plan to build a national highway along Taiwan's east coast has provoked heated debate in society for close to 20 years. Shortly after the Kuomintang replaced the Democratic Progressive Party as the nation's ruling party, the government proposed building a less controversial section of the highway. This angered the country's environmental groups and also sparked protests from Taiwan's east coast residents who believe the road will help develop the area's economy.
"We must ask if a transportation development plan centering around roads is viable in the long run, or if it is in accordance with the government's energy polices and promises to reduce carbon dioxide emissions," Shia said. The activist noted that neither of Taiwan's political parties paid proper attention to this question while in power, and similar controversies continued to emerge in 2008--notably with two expressway building projects that threaten the riverside ecologies of Taipei County's Nanzih River and Danshui River. "The government seriously needs to review its thinking and consistency in terms of environmental policy goals," Shia said. "Members of the public must play the role of a watchdog to safeguard Taiwan's fragile ecosystems," she said.
Chen echoed this sentiment and offered another perspective. "I believe that the government we elect and the way officials and civil servants handle public affairs is in large part a reflection of our own attitude," he said. "The tangled network of business and politics at all levels is deeply embedded in our society." Chen added that it is hard for the majority of the people to rise above this morass and throw their support behind the cause of environment, which is almost impossible to evaluate in terms of the financial bottom line.
As a way of engaging government agencies, Chen said TEIA is striving to work closely with these organs to promote its cause. By submitting proposals to complete environmental programs for the government, the group receives funding and secures opportunities to incorporate environmentally friendly ideas into these projects. Chen said until now, TEIA has conducted various plans for the Council of Agriculture, Council for Economic Planning and Development, Mainland Affairs Council, National Science Council, National Youth Commission and the Public Construction Commission, among others.
In justifying the group's goal of pinning its hope for the country's civic society on environmental issues, Chen stressed that robust grassroots power is the nation's advantage. "Once the movement is geared up and equipped with knowledge, Taiwan's environment can be changed for the better."
Write to June Tsai at june@mail.gio.gov.tw