Taiwan Today

National nature reserves are providing succor for Taiwan’s rarest plant species.

Red mangrove trees are a familiar sight when strolling along the banks of Tamsui River in the New Taipei City district sharing the waterway’s name. But in 1979, the mangals had a lucky escape from a government plan to remove an expanse of trees to make way for social housing. It was only the raised voices of local botanists such as Chou Chang-hung (周昌弘‬), an academician at Taiwan’s foremost research institution Academia Sinica in Taipei City, that brought the project to an end.

Growing in tropical and subtropical mudflats near estuaries and shorelines, red mangroves provide protection from tidal erosion and typhoon surges, Chou said. They also provide an ecosystem that supports crabs, mudskippers, oysters, shrimps and other aquatic creatures, he added.

“The 1970s were a time when environmental awareness was almost zero in Taiwan, with no legal protections,” Chou said. “But successfully stopping the housing development really changed the fortunes of the area.” Concerted conservation efforts finally led to the establishment of the Tamsui River Mangrove Nature Reserve in 1986 encompassing the land previously earmarked for development.

The 76.4-hectare space was established in accordance with the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, promulgated four years earlier with the goal of protecting local ecosystems and biodiversity. That year also saw the creation of the 34.6-hectare Pinglin Taiwan Keteleeria Nature Reserve in New Taipei, followed six years later by the 200-hectare Nanao Broad-leaved Forest Nature Reserve in the northeastern county of Yilan.

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Taiwan has expanded its protected areas continuously in the past several decades to guard against illegal hunting and logging. To date, these include six forest reserves, 10 national parks, 22 nature reserves and 37 major wildlife habitats as per the heritage law, Forestry Act, National Park Law and Wildlife Conservation Act, respectively, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the country’s total land area. The reserves and wildlife habitats are administered by eight district offices under the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau, the lead body overseeing national conservation activities.

Weng Yi-ling (翁億齡), a senior technical specialist at Luodong Forest District Office, which oversees reserves in Yilan and parts of New Taipei, has seen the Tamsui mangrove forest gradually expand over the past three decades from a small area struggling to survive into an extensive intertidal wetland ecosystem. “The site may be named after mangroves, but it’s not only about protecting the target plant,” he said. “Any organism that thrives in a sediment deposition environment benefits from the reserve.”

To help explain its work to the public, the Luodong office operates a Mangrove Ecocenter at Hongshulin station on the Taipei metro’s Tamsui-Xinyi line. Among its attractions is a 368-meter elevated scenic boardwalk available for ecotourists, nature lovers and birders to get up close and personal with the mangrove forest.

Pinglin, another Luodong-administered reserve, is also a success story. Its target plant, the endemic genus Keteleeria, has a low reproduction rate. “Usually only one out of every 10 seeds will germinate,” Weng said. But recent advances in breeding techniques implemented at Pinglin have dramatically increased the number of healthy seedlings, leading to the government relaxing restrictions on collection and horticultural uses for the plant.

Four species still remain on Taiwan’s strictly protected list, including the endemic Taiwan beech tree, which grows above the snow line and is particularly at risk from climate change. The Luodong office has implemented an ex situ conservation program for this endangered plant to complement its in situ population at the 7,759-hectare Chatianshan Nature Reserve in the northern metropolis of Taoyuan. Established in 1992, Chatianshan is managed by Hsinchu Forest District Office. Its director, Shia Jung-sheng (夏榮生), said global warming could soon kill off the remaining trees unless urgent steps are taken. “We’re conducting careful monitoring of the plant’s natural habitats on mid- and high-altitude mountain ridges to determine growth conditions and optimum protection strategies.”

Another native tree species under threat is the Taiwan sassafras, which is one of the primary targets of the 23.5-hectare Guanwu Broad-tailed Swallowtail Major Wildlife Habitat, established in 2000 in the northern county of Hsinchu as the nation’s first insect-focused reserve. The larvae of the butterfly from which the reserve takes its name rely on the leaves of the sassafras as their only source of food. The two organisms consequently share a symbiotic relationship, making protection of the tree a key component of any efforts to maintain swallowtail populations. In the last two years, Shia said, the Hsinchu office has taken to wrapping the trees’ fruits in protective covers to guard against hungry wild animals, leading to a tenfold increase in the number of collected seeds in 2019 compared with a year earlier.

Government Leadership

Nature reserves and major habitats administered by the district offices are all taking part in the ongoing Cabinet-led Taiwan Ecological Network project. The four-year plan, launched in May 2018 to help promote local biodiversity, is pooling the resources of central and local government agencies in a bid to understand the ecosystems across the nation’s varied topography. Different tactics are required for remote, rarely visited mountains compared to areas below 1,000 meters that are much more subject to human disturbance. “Key tasks include conducting comprehensive surveys, building biological inventories and identifying where to prioritize efforts,” Shia said.

Although the government is working to hit its conservation targets, there is no desire to shut the public out of Taiwan’s top scenic spots. Such was the message behind Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) announcement last October of the lifting of restrictions on access to mountain and forest areas countrywide. Promoting responsible enjoyment of Taiwan’s many natural wonders is the aim, with NT$700 million (US$23.3 million) being made available to build or refurbish alpine cabins and hiking trails as part of the program.

According to Shia, district offices are looking to strike a balance between research undertakings and public access in line with Su’s directives. At Chatianshan, for example, a maximum of 100 visitors are allowed per day on permitted trails. The open routes are regularly rotated to avoid any damage to the environment, she added.

As for Academia Sinica’s Chou, he remains deeply involved in Taiwan’s environmental movement since campaigning for the protection of the Tamsui mangroves, going on to help found New Taipei-based Chinese Society for Environmental Education in 1993. Thanks to the dedication of the group and other activists, the Environmental Education Act was passed in 2011 to ensure citizens understand humankind’s impact on the environment and the importance of safeguarding the nation’s ecosystems. “The time has come for a return to equilibrium,” Chou said. “All of us must work for the benefit of this planet and its flora and fauna.”

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw