Women account for less than 9 percent of the over 1,000 forest rangers in Taiwan. Born in 1985 in the northern city of Taoyuan, Chen began working for the Forestry Bureau under the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture in 2007 after graduating with a degree in forestry from National Chiayi University (NCYU) in southern Taiwan. Chen passed the bureau’s forest ranger exam in 2012 and is assigned to its Wulai Station in New Taipei City.
“As a student at Neili Senior High School in Taoyuan, I was really interested in math and biology. I ultimately chose to focus on plants because I realized I didn’t have the stomach for blood when we dissected frogs in science class. I learned about afforestation and plant physiology at university in Chiayi. I also did some internships at NCYU’s tree farm and Huisun Forest Area in [central Taiwan’s] Nantou County. The school offers a good learning environment in this discipline because of its strong connections with other colleges that have agricultural and forestry departments like National Chung Hsing University, which manages Huisun, as well as National Ilan University, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology and National Taiwan University.
I started working as a forest ranger at the beginning of 2013. Initially, I was assigned to Sanxia District [of New Taipei] before switching to my current station in Wulai the following year. Paperwork aside, my job involves checking national forests and outsourced plant nurseries, which produce trees for bureau greening projects and local community organizations. If in the course of my inspections, I uncover things like unreported land use, garbage dumping or illegal logging, I note down the sites, take photos and inform the station. In the case of more serious situations, I’ll also notify local law enforcement.
Every year, the Forestry Bureau organizes three exploratory missions, each lasting about five days, to remote mountainous regions. One of the goals of these trips is to find rare and valuable species like red cypresses and yellow cedars, which span more than a meter in diameter. By mapping out their locations, we can help protect the trees from illegal logging.
(Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)
I join at least one of these seven-person excursions every year. During an expedition in 2015, a typhoon made landfall much earlier than expected while we were on the final two days of our hike. We camped by a stream on the last night of the trip and I don’t think any of us got much sleep because we were so worried about the rising water level. The situation also caused some alarm back at Forestry Bureau headquarters in Taipei City, but thankfully we all made it home safely.
One year, I took part in two of the trips, which is unusual and attracted some attention at the bureau. In 2017, senior management invited me to play a leading role in the documentary “Taiwan Forest Guard” [released in July 2018] alongside three male rangers assigned to stations in central and southern Taiwan. The film is shown chiefly in schools to promote understanding of our jobs and enhance environmental awareness.
Thanks to my outspoken, extroverted personality, I have friendly, buddy-buddy relations with my male colleagues. They often ask me to go with them on the field trips, pleading that if I don’t come along, the team will be all guys. I think a female presence helps soften the macho, masculine atmosphere and makes the expeditions more enjoyable for everyone.
I’m a determined and slightly stubborn person, so when I go, I always carry all my own gear and make sure I contribute fully to the mission. With that being said, physical strength is a limitation for me. The maximum load I can carry is about 17 kilograms, while my male colleagues can haul between 20 and 30 kg. And going to the bathroom is a major inconvenience when we’re out in the wilderness. My coworkers sometimes offer to make a sort of shelter for me in the corner of our campsite, but I don’t want to bother them. At night if there’s thick fog, I need to stay really alert when I’m looking for a place to go to the toilet. You don’t want to get lost out in the mountains.
I’ve grown a lot since taking this job and I’m still learning in the role. One of our duties is watching for forest fires in areas not covered by standard firefighting networks. Although this rarely occurs in humid locations like Wulai, drier regions of the country such as Lishan Scenic Area [administered by Dongshi Forest District Office in central Taiwan] must be on alert at all times. Also, every five years, we conduct forestry resource surveys to update our database of tree growth conditions. This work requires high-level knowledge and skills and contributing to this research gives me a real sense of professional achievement.”
—interview by Pat Gao
Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw