Four environmental specialists who participated in the 10th Asia-Pacific NGO Environmental Conference in Taipei visited the historical Alangyi Trail (阿朗壹古道) yesterday and met Pingtung County Commissioner Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻) to share ideas on protecting the trail.
The tour followed on the international NGO conference hosted by the Society of Wilderness which ended on Monday.
The Alangyi Trail, a 12km hiking trail along the Pacific coastline between Taitung County’s Nantian Village (南田) and Pingtung County’s Syuhai Village (旭海), is being threatened by the planned construction of Provincial Highway No. 26. A section of the planned highway would run alongside the trail.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
The group of specialists started walking at Nantian and headed south on the pristine trail, passing through the mouth of a stream and walking along the shore covered with round rocks and driftwood, while environmental tour guides from local NGOs explained the ecological features.
Holding a live tree crab in his hands, a tour guide said more than 1,000 crabs per night would cross the trail during breeding season.
After a walk of about 2km along the trail, the group met Tsao at the Pingtung County Hall to share their experiences.
Chairperson of the Asia-Pacific Environmental Council and professor at Tokyo Keizai University, Yayoi Isono, said she loved walking along the ancient trial. She added that it was a beautiful place with many natural resources and hoped the government would protect the area.
A reserve manager at the World Wide Fund for Nature in Hong Kong, Bena Smith, said rather than always opposing construction, NGOs should provide alternatives and reach compromises with developers or the government.
Pierre Fidenci, founder and president of Endangered Species International, said the matter reminded him of a case in southern France, where activists spent a few years stopping the construction of a highway.
He said tourism was very important in France and that the people and government had gradually learned that “tourism is not only about convenient transportation, but also preserving the beautiful landscape the way it is” and “making it unique can also increase the number of tourists over the years.”
Stuart Rosewarne, of the department of political economy at the University of Sydney, emphasized that the importance of developing eco-tourism is not to over-develop areas, but to educate tourists to be environmentally aware.
Tsao said the nature reserve’s resources and landscape are precious assets, but the government faces heavy pressure from local residents to build the highway. This is because they were taught that transportation is the most important aspect of tourism and improving their lives, and do not fully understand the benefits of keeping the area pristine.
“When we want to protect a natural attraction [in Japan], it is also hard to have dialogue with the local people, because some of them want economic development or convenient transportation,” Isono said.
“If that is the case, how to promote dialogue between the government, NGOs and local people should be considered when making plans [for development].”
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to