Taiwan Today

Taiwan opened its eighth national park with the inauguration of the Taijiang National Park Administration Headquarters Dec. 28. The park covers a total of 39,310 hectares of land and sea in and along Tainan City and Tainan County. It features tidal flats and wetlands and is home to a plethora of flora and fauna, including mangrove trees and endangered black-faced spoonbills. “Taijiang National Park is unique in being the first park in the country to have been set up at the behest of locals,” said Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah, who called the park’s founding the beginning of “a new era in land preservation.” The government would work to see 10 land protection corridors set up covering areas neighboring the park to help protect it, the minister added. Jiang continued by explaining the origin of the park’s name. “A 16th-century topographic map of Taiwan shows a series of seven islets off of Tainan that together formed an inlet called ‘Taijiang’,” he said. “This national park is valuable not only for its natural scenery but also for the history, culture and traditional economic activities found here.” Park headquarters’ director Leu Teng-yuan said that economic activities that threatened to spoil the habitat of resident endangered and other species would be curtailed. His office, he disclosed, would help affected locals transform their businesses. The park’s lands and waters serve as the winter home of around 1,200 black-faced spoonbills, around half of the world’s total, according to Presidential Office Secretary-General Liao Liou-yi. Liao pointed out that the initial announcement concerning the park’s founding came on the heels of another stating that Tainan City and Tainan County would merge and become a special municipality. Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair said the national park plan, approved by the Executive Yuan Sept. 28, is significant for Taiwan, and particularly so for Tainan. “It will help Tainan become a city known for its special blend of technology, culture and natural splendor.”