Taiwan Today

Huang Hsiu-e (黃秀娥) still has vivid childhood memories of spending time on a stretch of beach near her home in Baiyu Village in Guanyin Township on the coast of Taoyuan County, northern Taiwan. “People called it the old rocky beach in the Hakka language. At the time, I often went there to catch fish or collect driftwood that we used for firewood,” says the 50-something woman. “I grew up playing and wandering around among those old rocks. That’s why I always feel a very close bond with my hometown by the sea.”

Huang later moved to neighboring Baosheng Village, another Hakka community, after getting married. She has served as director of the Baosheng Community Development Association since 2007 and has devoted herself during the past seven years to preserving the old rocks, which were thought to be coral until about 15 years ago, when researchers discovered they are actually algae-based reefs. This year has been especially significant for Huang and those who care about the unusual seaside landscape, as June saw the Taoyuan County Government announce the designation of a 4-kilometer strip of Taoyuan’s coast stretching from Baosheng Village in Guanyin to Yungan Village in Xinwu Township—the Guanxin Algal Reefs—as Taiwan’s 20th and newest wildlife refuge.

The identification of the reefs as algae-based rather than coral-based was made by Dai Chang-feng (戴昌鳳), director of the Institute of Oceanography at Taipei’s National Taiwan University (NTU). In 1998, the academic was commissioned by the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration to conduct a survey in Guanyin to assess whether the ecology at a particular site was suitable for development. Dai suspected that what he saw was something other than coral reefs, which are made up of colonies of tiny marine animals, and decided to bring a sample of the “old rocks” back to the lab for analysis. The reef turned out to be made of algae, which belongs to the plant kingdom.

Algal reefs are much less common than the more colorful coral reefs, although these “old rocks” can also be found on a smaller scale in other places in Taiwan—notably on the island’s northern coast from Sanzhi to Shimen in New Taipei City and at its southern tip in Kenting National Park. “Such an expanse of algal reefs on Taiwan’s sandy western coast is rare,” Dai says. The oceanographer attributes the existence of the reef to a layer of gravel lying at the bottom of a large plateau in Taoyuan that extends into the seabed. This layer serves as the foundation of the algal reefs, as the algae attaches itself to and grows from the gravel.

Meanwhile, people have gradually become more acquainted with algal reefs due to rising environmental consciousness. In 2001, the Taiwan Power Co. started construction of a natural gas-fired power plant on the coast of Tatan Village, which neighbors Baosheng, along with a long pier sticking out into the ocean that was meant to deliver cooling seawater to the plant’s generation equipment. The pier eventually caused a dramatic change in sea currents, which ate away a section of the beach to the south. The discovery that erosion caused the shoreline to recede also led the Baosheng Community Development Association to attend to other issues such as coastal wildlife and landscape preservation.

In 2007 the CPC Corp., Taiwan, the nation’s largest petrochemicals supplier, began laying a 140-kilometer undersea pipe to carry natural gas from Taichung, central Taiwan to the Tatan Power Plant in Guanyin, but the last section of the pipeline cut through and damaged part of the algal reefs along the shore. At the same time, Dai was commissioned to perform on-site research on a larger scale. This time, the academic’s research team extracted rock samples from more than 10 sites along the Taoyuan coast that went as deep as 6 meters. Samples were then sent abroad for carbon dating, which indicated that the algal reefs are more than 6,000 years old.

After that finding, the condition of the algal reefs began to attract ever-greater attention from the public. Environmentalists also helped boost awareness of the unique coastal landscape by exposing threats such as the construction of the gas pipeline and by pressing for protective measures. In fact, the health of algal reefs has been endangered by pollutants for decades, due to Taiwan’s emphasis on economic development over environmental protection in earlier years. The actual culprits are probably the factories in nearby Dayuan Industrial Park and Guanyin Industrial Park, which the government started to develop in 1976 and 1982 respectively. Overall there are around 20,000 factories in Taoyuan, which is one of Taiwan’s major industrial hubs. “Pollutants from other places should also be blamed, since sea currents can carry them from Taiwan’s other regions,” says Taoyuan County Deputy Mayor Huang Hung-pin (黃宏斌).

Health and Accessibility

Indeed, things have changed greatly since Huang Hsiu-e’s childhood in the 1970s. “At low tide, crabs and fish were everywhere. Chinese egrets were a common sight, too, and you could easily find groupers in tidal ponds,” she says. “But the egrets have dwindled a lot in number. Not a single one can be spotted now.” Although algal reefs can be found scattered along 60 percent of Taoyuan’s 45-kilometer coastline, many of them have suffered from decades of pollution. The Guanxin Algal Reefs stand out because they are not so close to major industrial zones and are consequently in comparatively good condition.

At low tide, the Baosheng section, which is accessible by way of a boardwalk that opened in 2008, reveals exposed algal reefs that extend for more than 400 meters before they disappear under the waves. “But remember to check with the Central Weather Bureau website for tide forecasts in advance, or you might only see an expanse of water, which happens to people all the time,” says Liao Jing-zeng (廖經贈), executive secretary of the Baosheng Community Development Association.

With the health of the Guanxin Algal Reefs now a major environmental issue, the site has also become more widely known by the public. In 2013, the Forestry Bureau under the Council of Agriculture (COA) and NTU’s Department of Geography conducted an online public vote to select Taiwan’s top 10 landscapes, as well as the top landscape in each city and county. Voters selected from among 90 candidates with great geological and topographical significance. Although the Taoyuan algal reef was a contender, it did not win a place in the top 10 in the end, but was still voted the most valuable landscape in Taoyuan County.

In April this year the COA designated the Baosheng-Yungan coastal area, where wild species of birds, fish and shellfish breed, forage and seek shelter among the algal reefs, as Taiwan’s 37th and newest major wildlife habitat. Under the Republic of China’s Wildlife Conservation Act, if a specific major wildlife habitat needs extra protection, the local government can upgrade it to a wildlife refuge. As a result, the Taoyuan County Government announced the establishment of the Guanxin Algal Reef Wildlife Refuge in June. No development can be launched in either a major wildlife habitat or a wildlife refuge, but the status of the former does not prevent access by people, while the latter is divided into three zones with different levels of protection—a core zone, buffer zone and sustainable use zone—with the core zone strictly off-limits to the public.

Some environmentalists have pressed to have the Guanxin Algal Reefs declared a nature reserve in accord with the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, which focuses on protecting a site’s unique natural landscape instead of its wildlife. However, local residents have not warmed to the proposal, Huang notes, because a person cannot enter the entire area without a permit, with fines reaching between NT$30,000 (US$1,000) and NT$150,000 (US$5,000) for trespassers. “For a long time, locals have roamed among the algal reefs, fishing to make a living. I played there as a kid, collecting shells and catching crabs for food. Should we feel happy if we’re not allowed to do so freely anymore?” Huang asks, adding that an off-limits core zone in a wildlife refuge would be more acceptable, as it would strike a balance between conservation and familiar practicality.

“And we’re planning to control the total amount of visitors who enter the non-core zone area, which should minimize human impact on the algal reefs,” Huang Hung-pin says. The measure is gaining urgency as the unique landscape is attracting more people taking environmental education trips. Although most of the time only local residents and anglers can be spotted in Baosheng’s coastal area, which remains unreachable via direct public transportation, numerous visitors are known to descend on the site on weekends.

Dai believes the reserve serves a higher purpose by enhancing consciousness of the need to protect the site and alerting visitors about the need to watch for nearby sources of pollution. “The major pollution concern is the threat from industrial waste, not from human activity in the reserve,” he says, adding that the affected algal reefs could recover once sources of pollution are eliminated.

Monitored by Owls

Echoing public concern for the health of the algal reefs as well as Taiwan’s environment in general, the Taoyuan County Government established a dedicated three-year task force in September 2012. With a total budget of NT$25 million (US$844,000), the resulting Owl Project aims to prohibit discharges of water pollution during the hours when illegal releases are most likely—at night and during holidays, for example—in major rivers and waterways deemed by the public as seriously polluted. Due to limited personnel, the Owl Project cannot monitor these sites all the time, so the Environmental Protection Bureau of the Taoyuan County Government has turned to technology to perform this task. For example, surveillance equipment has been installed at different sections of rivers, and pollution alerts are sent to environmental protection personnel via cellphone. By May this year, the Owl Project had issued tickets to nearly 600 factories, collecting about NT$96 million (US$3.2 million) in fines. Fourteen factories have even been shut down.

Taoyuan’s Nankan Creek and Laojie Creek have also improved significantly, according to Ni Ping-hsiung (倪炳雄), deputy director-general of the bureau. More than 60 percent of the length of each creek was severely polluted about 10 years ago, but today the percentage has decreased to about 5 percent. “You saw nothing but tilapia before, but today carp are found in these rivers, too,” the official says, indicating that the variety of fish in the creeks is on the rise.

Liao of the Baosheng Community Development Association agrees that the government anti-pollution project has been effective, noting that wildlife on the Baosheng coast seems to be spotted more frequently these days. At the same time, the association has worked with schools and businesses to organize beach cleanups and on-site tours that help improve understanding of the unique landscape. One such business is Freudenberg Far Eastern Spunweb Co. in Taoyuan, a 25-year-old Taiwanese-German joint venture. “The company has been looking for subjects worth devoting itself to. We’ve chosen the Guanxin Algal Reefs not only because the site is close to our company, but also because of the rarity of the landscape and comparatively good condition of the Baosheng Village section,” says Ronnie Lou (樓剛), logistics manager of the company. Freudenberg Far Eastern and the Baosheng association co-organized two events in April in which 90 workers, executives and family members traveled to the site to clean up the beach and plant saplings at its edge.

But not all enterprises are aware of their responsibility to protect the environment, and some individuals who visit the algal reefs harm them by leaving trash there, according to Huang. “And there is room for improvement when it comes to law enforcement,” NTU’s Dai says of his major concern about the future of Taiwan’s newest wildlife refuge, referring to the government effort to prohibit acts that damage algal reefs both inside and outside the wildlife refuge. That said, at least the first step has been taken to preserve one of Taiwan’s most extraordinary landscapes by including it on the official list of wildlife protection areas.

Today, Taoyuan’s coastal scenery is perhaps quite different from that in Huang Hsiu-e’s childhood memories, but at least part of it has a good chance of recovery. “For me, Chinese egrets are an indicator,” she says, looking over an expanse of the Guanxin Algal Reefs. “If I can spot one someday in the future, that’s when I can say the wildlife refuge is a success.”

Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw