Taiwan Today

Endowed with two major ecosystems—wetlands and forest—a new conservation and recreation area in southern Taiwan is home to a myriad of life forms.

Whenever He Jian-xun and his fellow enthusiasts at the Wild Bird Society of Chiayi County visit Aogu Wetland Forest Park in Dongshi Township, Chiayi County, southern Taiwan, they always go to see an old friend—a smallish, black-footed cormorant with dark, glossy plumage—that they have nicknamed Blackie. The seabird usually rests on a stump in shallow water near an embankment and has been seen there frequently for about five years.

Actually, Blackie originally came from mainland China. One year, during its annual visit to Aogu for the winter, the bird broke its left wing, probably as a result of hitting a fishing net when it dived into the water to hunt for food. The poor creature has thus been forced to settle in the area since then. “We go to see Blackie regularly not only because we love watching birds, but also out of our admiration for the bird’s bravery in striving to survive on its own. We imagine how Blackie feels each year when it sees its counterparts from the mainland arriving in Aogu in the fall and heading home in the spring, while it’s stuck there,” He says. “Blackie is a fighter. The sight of the bird’s lonely figure touches and inspires us, adding a lot of meaning to our birdwatching tours.”

For He and other bird enthusiasts, the Aogu Wetlands, the largest and best-preserved area of its kind in Taiwan, is a small piece of paradise that gives them a chance to appreciate unusual and exotic birds in their natural habitats. Aogu has long been recognized as an ecological treasure that encompasses lagoons, sandbars, marshes, mud flats, beefwood trees, mangrove swamps and windbreak forests, together with places where a mix of freshwater and seawater allows a great range of aquatic creatures to thrive. These creatures—crabs, snails and fish—are the staple diet for many birds.

Consequently, birds in their thousands including egrets, black drongos, Japanese white-eyes, grey plovers, moorhens, black-headed gulls and northern shovelers, are attracted to the area, in addition to a variety of other wildlife species. “The park’s diverse ecosystems not only attract numerous resident species like the Pacific golden plover, the common sandpiper and the black-winged stilt, but also a high number of migratory birds that stay for the winter,” He says. “Aogu provides a unique birdwatching experience. You must come here between November and February to see the migratory birds from Japan, mainland China and Siberia that congregate in massive numbers. It’s really a fantastic scene!”

Bird Paradise

According to a survey conducted by the Council of Agriculture (COA), Aogu park is home to 221 bird species—or nearly half of the 450 bird species recorded in Taiwan—as well as 10 mammal species, 18 fish species, 22 crustacean species, 17 amphibian species and 346 insect species. The COA survey also shows that about 75 percent of the birds found at Aogu belong to migratory species, some of which are endangered or protected such as the black-faced spoonbill, oriental white stork and gray-faced buzzard hawk. Overall, among the many animals sighted at Aogu, 41 species are subject to protection under the Wildlife Conservation Act promulgated by the COA.

The park, covering a total area of 1,465 hectares, was reclaimed from the sea in the 1960s and transformed into an agricultural site by the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp. Today, in view of its biological diversity and significance, Aogu, like two former agricultural farms in Pingtung and Hualien counties in the southern and eastern parts of Taiwan, has been selected by the COA’s Forestry Bureau for development into a forest recreation area that can be used for nature and wildlife conservation, reforestation, education and ecotourism.

The establishment of the three large-sized forest recreation areas is among the important tasks of the forestation plan of the i-Taiwan 12 Projects, a series of infrastructure works designed to invigorate Taiwan’s economic development. The 12 priority public construction projects cover transportation networks, industrial innovation, environmental protection, rural and urban development and forestation, among other plans. The projects are to be carried out between 2009 and 2016 with a total budget of NT$3.99 trillion (US$127 billion).

Accordingly, the COA announced in 2009 that it would increase forested areas by 60,000 hectares over the next eight years via a subsidy of NT$120,000 (US$3,800) a year for every hectare of land reforested, part of which will include work in the three new forest recreation areas. The council plans to inaugurate all three recreation sites by 2012.

The government started tree-planting efforts to “green” the island in 2002 and had completed forestation across 15,579 hectares of plains by 2009. Currently, there are 18 forest recreation parks under the jurisdiction of the Forestry Bureau, but all of them are situated in mountainous regions. The inauguration of the three new parks, each covering a minimum of 1,000 hectares, will give plains-dwelling residents more convenient options for enjoying the natural environment.

Meanwhile, the COA has designated 665 hectares of Aogu Wetland Forest Park as an important wildlife habitat, conferring legal protection on the area and banning development there. The whole park has also been included on the list of Taiwan’s 75 major wetlands by the Construction and Planning Agency under the Ministry of the Interior.

Lu Shiau-yun, an assistant professor of the Department of Marine Environment and Engineering at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, is in charge of planning and development for the Aogu Forest Recreation Area, as the park will be known when it officially opens in late 2011. She says the uniqueness of Aogu lies in its simultaneous possession of two major ecosystems—wetlands and forest—that allow for an extraordinary profusion of flora and fauna to thrive. “The abundance and beauty of the natural resources in Aogu make it an ideal site for nature appreciation, environmental education and academic research programs,” Lu says. “Plus, it can be considered an ecological monitoring center, one which could help to play a role in addressing the critical issue of climate change.”

The recognition of Aogu as an important wildlife habitat by the COA, Lu says, makes legal protection of the site possible, thus helping to improve Taiwan’s status in the world ecological conservation community. She expects the region, already a major habitat on Taiwan’s west coast for East Asian migratory birds, will attract even more birds and become better known internationally now that the environmental conservation measures are in place.

Low-Density Development

Lu explains that along with Aogu’s ecological function, the council recognizes the site’s academic, cultural, educational and recreational value. Planning, therefore, has been based on the principle of low-density development to minimize negative impacts on the environment while facilitating ecotourism. “The idea is to maintain the current condition of Aogu, and ideally to improve the site through ecological restoration and water management projects,” Lu says. “Only a few simple recreational facilities like birdwatching platforms, wooden walking trails, bike lanes and information boards will be built to serve the visiting public.”

The assistant professor says she is studying the feasibility of imposing a daily limit on the total number of visitors when the forest park opens to the public to ensure that the area’s ecosystems remain as intact as possible. At the very least, the park will be divided into sectors that will have different policies for visitor admission. For example, the core zone, mainly the 665 hectares designated by the COA as an important wildlife habitat, will remain closed to the public. A buffer zone will be established around the core that will admit a set number of visitors on an application basis. The outermost zone will house a tourist center and lodging facilities, and will allow unrestricted access.

“Aogu has great environmental value and is an open air classroom for nature studies,” Lu says. “Hopefully, it can become a popular destination for school field trips. I believe that young children could learn a lot about nature in a visit, as well as learn to appreciate and cherish the beauty of nature.”

Chiu Li-wen, chief of the Recreation Division of the COA’s Forestry Bureau, says Aogu meets a number of evaluation standards listed by the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands. These include the high number of animal and plant species at the site, diverse ecological environments, the sheer size of the park and the frequent presence of more than 20,000 water birds at any one time. Given the launch of restoration and conservation projects, Aogu should be a potential candidate for inclusion on the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance, which currently names 1,869 sites (known as Ramsar Sites), Chiu adds.

As wetlands can regulate floods and purify water, they can be considered the “kidneys” of nature. Together with forestland and oceans, they are also considered one of the three major ecosystem types in the world. Given its species and environmental diversity, the wetlands and forests of Aogu can play an important role in environmental education in Taiwan, which can lead to a more harmonious relationship between humans and nature, Chiu continues. At the same time, she hopes well-rounded planning will ensure that the area is developed not only for education, but also conservation and recreation.

Chiu says visits to Aogu could be combined with other tourist attractions in the vicinity such as Dongshi Fisherman’s Wharf and the more than 300-year-old Gangkou Temple in order to utilize the area’s tourism resources more comprehensively. Moreover, package tours that include local rural communities could offer visitors a variety of ways to experience nature and area culture and history. The Forestry Bureau official says she is glad to see that residents in the area have started a concerted effort to promote tourism such as by opening guesthouses or organizing meals featuring local delicacies for visiting tour groups. There are also recreational activities available in the area, like birdwatching tours and bamboo raft rides, as well as opportunities to collect seaweed and clams from local ponds and make handicrafts using oyster shells and other seashells.

Capturing the Beauty

Chen Ming-ming, a senior photographer who has been commissioned by the Forestry Bureau to make a photographic record of Aogu, says he is very impressed by the area’s unique beauty. Chen has been engaged in photography for more than 30 years and is frequently entrusted by the Tourism Bureau to photograph Taiwan’s famous tourist spots. Still, he says the forest park has given him a new visual experience. “I used to think that I’d already explored Taiwan thoroughly and seen plenty of beautiful landscapes until I visited Aogu for the first time last year,” Chen says. “It’s so spacious that one time when I was driving in a beefwood forest in the area, I felt as if I were in South Africa—the forest just went on and on with no end in sight. Besides, watching the immense flocks of birds standing or feeding in shallow water there is just marvelous!”

Chen says he cannot help but praise the wonders of nature every time he pays a visit to Aogu. To create a photographic record of those wonders, he intends to capture its changes over the four seasons and moreover from different elevations. Hence, in one series of photographs he used a crane to ascend to a height of about 10 stories in order to take photos of the wetlands. The photographer hopes to have access to a helicopter in the near future to record large tracts of Aogu’s forests and wetlands from an aerial perspective, as he believes that the images could showcase the vastness and diverse environment of the new park.

“I’d like to use beautiful shots of Aogu to get people’s attention and interest so that they can get to know this place and come here to experience its biological diversity and natural beauty in person,” Chen concludes. “Aogu’s extensive land area offers urbanites a great escape from the hustle and bustle of city life. It’s a place where they can enjoy total peace and relaxation by appreciating the blue skies, white clouds, green forests and red sunsets in a very tranquil environment. That kind of ‘luxury’ is hard to find elsewhere nowadays.”

Write to Kelly Her at kelly@mail.gio.gov.tw