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After designating 2002 as Ecotourism Year, Taiwan is preparing a number of nature reserves for visitors from abroad who may be interested more in scenic beauty and the island’s flora and fauna than world-famous Chinese cuisine. The subtropical island, known to the West for centuries as Formosa (Beautiful), is richly endowed with ecotouristic attractions. It has some of East Asia’s highest peaks, Mount Morrison or Jade Mountain being the highest at close to 4,000 meters above sea level. Mount Silvester is a Mecca for alpinists. Many of its indigenous plants, birds and animals are found nowhere else in the world. Its forests cover climate zones ranging from tropical to frigid. Rare migrating birds come by the millions.
So far few ecotourists have come to Formosa. There is no well-organized international publicity to attract nature lovers to Island Beautiful, while Taiwan has yet to make its national parks better accessible and manage them well. That calls for legislation to encourage ecotourism and preserve the island’s ecological environment as well. While preparing bills for such legislation, the government agencies concerned should not leave agritourism behind.
Agritourism started in Taiwan in the 1980s to help farmers cope with falling incomes, rising costs and increased foreign competition. Tourist orchards and farms have mushroomed to give city dwellers the chance to pick their own fruits and vegetables. Recreational farms have also been opened to offer urbanite visitors picnicking, bird watching, and other low-impact activities aside from the opportunity to harvest their own agricultural products. By the mid-1990s, however, the agritourism industry was found developing to an extent and in a direction that went against a few environmental protection laws. A set of rules has been published to bring it under control.
These rules, which are prohibitive rather than encouraging agritourism, have to be reviewed at the time when the authorities are preparing ecotourism bills. The agritourism industry needs government encouragement, which should be stipulated in the bills. Without a booming agritourism, practically all young farmers will leave their rural homes for cities where they wish to land better-paying jobs. Agriculture, which used to be the mainstay of the Taiwan economy as late as the middle of the last century, may be marginalized.
Agritourism can be made part of ecotourism Taiwan is now trying to promote. There is no reason why they cannot go hand in hand to keep Formosa prosperous and forever beautiful.
Taiwan’s natural heritage is protected in 6 National Parks: Kenting Yushan Yangmingshan Taroko Gorge Shei-pa and Kinmen and 12 designated scenic areas.
There are large areas of indigenous sub-tropical forest, particularly on the east Coast. These forests tend to be montane forests, rich in cypress, juniper, fir, bamboo and some rare camphor trees.
Many of Taiwan’s forests were logged during the Japanese occupation, but new programs are now in place to re-afforest large areas of denuded woodland.
This is good news for the island’s 18,400 species of wildlife of which about 20% are considered rare or endangered
species. One of the best known of these is the extremely rare Formosan black bear. Also found in the forests are Sambar and Muntjac deer, and the Serow (a species of Mountain Goat) along with many other protected species of primates, mammals and reptiles.
Bird lovers can also admire rare species of birds here in Taiwan. Boasting the second-highest concentration of bird species per square kilometer in the world, Taiwan is also home to 15 endemics, as well as a host of near-endemic and rare species. Every year over 70 species of birds migrate to Taiwan, several of which are world-famous endangered species.
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