Sociopolitical

Tainan wetlands emerge as ecotourism haven

For many visitors to Taijiang National Park, a raft ride through an otherworldly mangrove forest is the highlight of the tour. (Staff photo/ Kwangyin Liu)

• Publication Date：07/07/2012
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  Kwangyin Liu

As the raft inched forward on the creek, its passengers, equipped with pointy bamboo hats, basked in the tropical sun. Some of the taller ones occasionally had to lower their heads to avoid the overhanging mangrove branches, but no one seemed to be bothered at all, not even the white egrets and land crabs they glided past.

Some visitors said the 30-minute tour resembled a ride on the Amazon River. “Actually, this is way better because we don’t have alligators here,” one tourist from Taipei said jokingly. “It’s hard to believe this place is only a half-hour drive from downtown Tainan City.”

The rafting excursion is only one of the attractions southern Taiwan’s Taijiang National Park has to offer. Established in 2009, it features world-class wetlands and more than four centuries of military and commercial history. Visitors can also cycle through forested parts of the park on wooden bike paths, or climb observation towers for panoramic views of the wetlands.

Legendary Anping Harbor, just 10 kilometers northwest of the city center, was once a military stronghold that saw a parade of ships and crews sent by the Spanish, the Dutch and finally Zheng Cheng-gong, or Koxinga, of the Ming dynasty, each trying to gain a foothold in Taiwan’s main trading port.

Boasting spectacular sunsets, the vast Qigu Lagoon also supports highly productive oyster farms.(Courtesy of Taijiang National Park)

Qigu Lagoon, the largest body of water of its kind in Taiwan, is important both economically and environmentally. The 1,455-hectare lagoon used to be much more extensive, inundating almost half of what is now urban Tainan City. It has shrunk considerably largely as a result of siltation.

“Just a few decades ago, I had to take a ferry to commute to my high school downtown, but now the water is gone,” said Cheng Tsui-feng, a veteran volunteer at the national park and a former employee of the Tainan City Government’s agricultural department.

“One day, maybe in the next 100 years, the lagoon will vanish completely, leaving more land,” she lamented.

Now, however, the lagoon is a crucial part of the park, with daily sunset cruises for tourists and oyster cultivation that yields huge harvests every year.

An immense expanse of wetlands a little to the south of the lagoon is a winter haven for flocks of migratory birds.

Every year between September and March, thousands of black-faced spoonbills frequent the wetlands. In January 2012, more than 1,562 of these birds were sighted in the protected area, which spans 634 hectares.

“We have the world’s largest population of this endangered animal,” Cheng said. Fewer than 2,700 survive worldwide, according to the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society.

Every year, thousands of black-faced spoonbills make the Taijiang wetlands their winter haven.

Some of the birds fly as far as 2,000 kilometers from their breeding sites in North Korea to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam and other wintering sites across Southeast Asia. “During the peak time of November, over 1,000 spoonbills can be seen in a single day,” she said. “It’s a paradise for birders from home and all over the world.”

An NT$430 billion (US$14.4 billion) plan proposed in the 1990s would have turned a large portion of these wetlands into a petrochemical complex. In 2006, however, following relentless petitioning by activists to preserve the area, the Environmental Protection Administration intervened to overrule the plan on the grounds of insufficient need for the development.

Now more than 200 bird species can be spotted in the national park, including at least 20 that are endangered.

“The choice was not about just one factory or one bird, but our path for future development: Is it one of perpetual exploitation of the environment or one of sustainable coexistence?” said Cheng, who was vocally opposed to the project from day one.

“If we had opted for the petrochemical plant, there might have been more jobs and better facilities,” Yang said, “but the spoonbills would have nowhere to go because the wetlands would have all disappeared.”

The choice has made all the difference, not only to the migratory birds and park volunteers like Cheng, but to activists around the island, who have been inspired to campaign against similar projects. In 2011, activists in the western county of Changhua invoked the example of Taijiang National Park as they battled to save the 2,773-hectare Dacheng wetlands from another planned petrochemical complex.

After leading a daylong tour, Cheng still had work to do. As the president of the park’s volunteer squad, she needed to prepare tests for trainees ready to become volunteer guides.

“Some of them have failed the exams before and need to be reassessed,” she said. “It is very important for our guides to know the park through and through, including all the birds, trees, flowers and the role it has played in Tainan’s history.”

By passing on her knowledge, experience and sense of mission, Cheng is encouraging more people to see the long-term value of the environment, and to take action to safeguard it. (THN)