Environmental degradation has already reached a crisis point, with wholesale difficulties in air and water pollution, plus mounting problems with waste disposal, both domestic and industrial. Pollution-related public grievances have become especially prevalent during the past two years, forcing more focused government reaction.
One of the principal responses by the Executive Yuan has been its upgrading of the Bureau of Environmental Protection to the cabinet level. In 1987 the Bureau was renamed the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), and given both a broad mandate to address the island's expanding environmental woes, and the clout to make headway in an area fraught with technical difficulties and stymied by conflicting interests.
In the following article, Dr. Chien Jen-ter, director of the EPA's Bureau of Comprehensive Planning, outlines the general goals of the EPA, and discusses some of the agency's early steps to solve environmental problems on Taiwan.
Shortly before the establishment of the Environmental Protection Administration in 1987, the late President Chiang Ching-kuo focused public attention on the need for resolving pollution problems by insisting that Taiwan's continuing economic progress had to be accompanied by environ mental protection. He also called for immediate substantial steps to be taken to address these issues, including studying environmental programs already underway in various developing countries, and grooming local governmental staff for environment-related jobs.
On the day the EPA officially came into being, Premier Yu Kuo-hwa reinforced the government's position on the environment by saying that the government would rather sacrifice economic growth than have even more environmental pollution: "If a conflict exists between the interests of industry and maintenance of a pleasant living environment, priority must go to the latter."
According to the new head of the EPA, Chien You-hsin, Taiwan's goal is to achieve a level of environmental quality equal to the world's advanced countries. Plans for the government's basic program of environmental protection are outlined in an Executive Yuan document entitled Guiding Principles for Current-stage Environmental Protection Policy. The overall plan is ambitious and long-range, calling for highest priority to be given to environmental issues over the next 10 years in order to ensure a healthy, pleasing natural environment for future generations. To give the plan enforcement teeth, the government is currently drafting relevant legislation and pollution regulations.
Government policy is many-faceted, emphasizing preventative measures, improvement in immediate conditions, cooperation with the general public, education, and enactment of effective legislation. In response to the Guiding Principles, the EPA has 21 projects already underway aimed at improving environmental conditions on the island of Taiwan, and the neighboring islands of Kinmen and Matsu.
The preventative measures include creating better systems of environmental impact assessment (EIA), which will be pivotal in gaining public trust. The weaknesses of current regulations are also under scrutiny. Many training programs have been established to produce future experts in the field, and the EPA is publishing technical handbooks on EIA for both specialists and the public.
Immediate environmental conditions are demanding prompt attention, and the EPA has coordinated resources with a variety of organizations to build a national databank to record all hazardous pollutants, which will greatly assist in the supervision and control process. The EPA is also working out new pollution standards, recognizing at the same time that raising standards is a step-by-step process.
Complex environmental protection tasks will obviously prove impossible to complete without widespread cooperation between the government and the public. The EPA is therefore mobilizing local residents to handle jobs for which environmental protection organizations areas lack sufficient manpower. With more of the public actively involved, the EPA hopes to foster a spirit of social responsibility in protection of the natural environment. At present, environmental groups are few in number and have relatively small membership, but as citizens become more aware of environmental issues, it is expected that public contributions to overcoming environmental degradation will gain in importance. One of the areas ripe for immediate action is in the disposal of garbage and litter, as a glance at Taiwan's streets, roadsides, and streams clearly indicates.
These particular problems highlight one of the EPA's main efforts: mass education. If the public fully understands the importance of environmental issues and their related personal responsibilities, the government believes citizens will work more enthusiastically to improve conditions. Armed with sufficient information, people can assume proper roles in protecting public health and the natural ecological balance. In one program already underway, the EPA and National Taiwan Normal University are cooperating in the collection of information on environmental protection, including teaching materials, to set up a databank for use in the mass education programs.
In the past, both the government and the people of Taiwan generally ignored problems like pollution and ecological imbalance as they put their energies into the race for economic growth. Legislation on environmental protection was delayed to keep local industry as unfettered as possible, and what laws did exist were pathetically weak or unenforced. With public attitudes now beginning to change, the EPA is reviewing all previous legislation to recommend a solid legal foundation for future environmental protection laws.
There is no question that the public is now becoming more involved in environmental protection issues. In recent months, citizens have staged numerous public protests about ineffective legislation on the environment. Although some of the protests have been based more on anger or misinformation, they have raised legitimate concerns about the safety of Taiwan's environment. As a result, environment-related health issues have gained considerable public prominence. Even though many court cases illustrate insufficient basic knowledge about the environment—and narrow personal interests-there is a trend toward greater maturity and understanding of the underlying issues facing the island's air, water, and waste dilemmas.
Demonstrators are focusing their attention on actual polluters as much as the government. The most common groups to organize against industrial polluters, for example, have usually been clusters of victims who have suffered as a result of destructive chemical agents. Other organized protests have been launched by academic groups, organizations devoted solely to environmental issues, and groups derived from larger, non-environmental bodies. To date most of these groups have unfortunately had little real effect beyond publicly announcing their dissatisfactions. Without any direct leverage, or access to effective intermediaries, they have remained essentially powerless.
The creation of the EPA, however, is an important step in fulfilling the need for intermediaries who have the authority to mediate in environmental conflicts of interest or public disputes. In the last two years, the government has faced a steady series of dramatic challenges, including political reforms, economic adjustments, and the rise of more vocal labor movements. While all have potential for destabilizing society, and for bringing the credibility of the government into question, the government has thus far responded positively to the challenges, gradually implementing policies to promote resolution of the issues at hand. There is no reason to think that environmental challenges will be an exception.
Through the formation of the EPA, the government has given the public an added avenue of communication and assistance. But the government's role is only part of the overall picture. Without an orderly approach to environmental protection, the improvements may be too slow or inadequate, resulting in even more serious pollution problems. The EPA provides the residents of Taiwan reason for hope in the fight against pollution and protection from further degradation of the island. But in the final analysis, saving the environment is everyone's problem—and everyone's responsibility.