Taiwan Today

Unique geology and international outreach ensure national parks fulfill conservation goals.
 

In 2022 the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) held a forum to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Park Law, promulgated in 1972 to set aside space for public recreation and scientific research to protect the country’s natural scenery, wildlife and historic sites. At the event, the ministry released a statement recognizing national parks as vital to conservation and as an important vector for international connection. It committed to promoting partnerships both within the network of national parks and between them and their neighboring communities, as well as to raising management systems to international standards.
 

After restructuring last year, the MOI grouped management of Kenting, Kinmen, Shei-Pa, Taijiang, Taroko, Yangmingshan and Yushan National Parks, along with South Penghu and Dongsha Marine National Parks and Shoushan National Nature Park, under the National Park Service (NPS). According to Chen Mao-chun (陳茂春), the former NPS director general who retired in August, national parks account for 8.65 percent of the country’s total land area and include spaces maintained under the Wetland Conservation Act and the Coastal Zone Management Act. “Our national parks integrate land conservation ecosystems from alpine and semiwild regions to coastal areas,” Chen said. “These diverse environments have the potential to transcend political boundaries through soft power. They’re a powerful brand identity for the country,” he said.
 

Wang Wen-cheng (王文誠), professor in the Department of Geography at Taipei City-based National Taiwan Normal University, agrees that national parks can play an important role in international representation. Wang chairs the National Park Association of Taiwan, which helped organize the 2022 forum in the capital. He pointed out that the country has a high degree of biodiversity. “As a result of topography covering a wide range of elevations, a rich variety of species calls the island home, and from this perspective, national parks and their rich environmental resources are a source of pride for the country,” Wang explained.

International Outreach

The professor added that geological identity is another distinctive factor. “Most of the world’s islands are volcanic in origin, but Taiwan is orogenic,” Wang said. “This means that it’s a result of the movement of tectonic plates.” It is therefore no wonder that the country’s 36,000 square kilometers contain 268 mountains reaching over 3,000 meters. Of these giants, 157 are located in Shei-Pa, Yushan and Taroko National Parks, where they attract between 280,000 and 300,000 domestic and overseas visitors per year.
 

In recent years these high mountain parks have conducted exchanges with counterparts in Japan. In July Chen led a delegation of personnel from the three parks to Chubusangaku National Park in the Japanese Alps to discuss policies and share views on park management. The trip followed visits earlier this year to Taiwan’s national parks by a number of researchers from Japan’s Ministry of the Environment to observe leisure services, fee collection procedures and the arrangement of biodiversity studies.
 

Other international exchanges are also underway. In 2022 Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters signed a memorandum of understanding that established a three-year cooperation with Gyeongju National Park Office in South Korea. A reciprocal visit mechanism took shape last year with in-depth discussions on responses to climate change in such events as a three-week personnel exchange from Yangmingshan to Gyeongju. Similar arrangements between Taiwan and the U.S. have a long history. “We have a management system akin to that of the U.S. parks, which makes for a close bilateral relationship,” Chen said, citing recent on-the-job training programs for NPS staff at Grand Canyon and Yosemite National Parks in the U.S.

Wildlife Bonds

For Chen, participation at international events is a great way to build wider working relationships. “When we go abroad for seminars or conferences, we make connections and invite our counterparts to attend forums and other activities in Taiwan,” he said. Taiwan has qualities that make it uniquely suited for certain topics, such as last October’s International Symposium for Salamander Research and Conservation hosted by Taipei Zoo. Some species of the amphibian survived the last ice age to find suitable habitats at higher elevations in Taiwan. Attendees from Japan, South Korea and other countries joined local experts to discuss them and their cool, moist habitats in areas like the mountains of Taroko, Shei-Pa and Yushan.
 

Later that month another type of wildlife became the focus at the International Summit on Grey-faced Buzzard and Migratory Raptors in southern Taiwan’s Kenting National Park. Researchers and academics from around Asia, including Thailand and the Philippines, gathered to cultivate consensus on methods to establish protection for the birds’ habitats in their respective countries.
 

October 2023 also saw the NPS and Taipei-based National Taiwan University jointly organize the International Conservation Conference in the capital. The event invited academics, including those from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Switzerland-based organization’s World Commission on Protected Areas, to exchange views on conservation in Taiwan. Participants also provided feedback on the status of the NPS’ adoption of international standards, which were introduced to Taiwan’s park system in 2020, to assess the management of national parks in terms of values, goals, threats and countermeasures.

Conservation Conversations

Scientific colloquiums occur throughout the year and all around the country. In April an international forum to discuss the conservation of endangered Eurasian otters was held in Kinmen National Park in the offshore archipelago. Participants included experts from Taipei Zoo and the Hong Kong office of Swiss ecological charity World Wide Fund for Nature. The MOI’s years of building links with the U.S.-based Society of Wetland Scientists have borne fruit: the organization will, for the first time since its founding in 1980, have its annual meeting in Asia—specifically, in Taipei—this November with over a hundred international attendees. “Meanwhile, local results of wetland protection will be presented to a global audience and be evaluated from an international perspective,” Chen said.
 

In accordance with the 2015 Wetland Conservation Act, two wetlands at Taijiang National Park in the southern city of Tainan were designated as being of international importance, while nearly 60 others across the country were listed as vital at the national or local level. Sicao Wetlands and Zengwen Estuary Wetlands in Taijiang are two of the world’s major wintering spots for the black-faced spoonbill. Since its establishment in 2009, the national park has protected the endangered birds by regularly conducting population surveys and sharing information with the international community while signing agreements with the owners of nearby commercial fishing ponds to cultivate foraging habitats for the birds.
 

In Wang’s view, close engagement with local communities is crucial for Taiwan’s national park management. The professor cited the NPS’s environmental interpretation projects at national parks like Yushan and Kenting that offer courses for local residents. “They become community guides who can speak knowledgeably about not only wildlife and plants but also about their lives and how they’re woven into the land. The NPS has found a balance between fostering direct grassroots outreach and its responsibility to represent the country globally. It’s a source of national pride.”

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw