A National Pingtung University of Science and Technology team has convinced aboriginal communities within southern Taiwan’s Kenting National Park to promote ecotourism as a means of developing their economies and protecting the environment.
Eight years ago the park headquarters selected Sheding community, with its parent stands of mabolo trees, or Diospyros discolor Willd., and nearby Formosan Sika Deer Restoration Area and Uplifted Coral Reef Nature Reserve, for the first ecotour route. The indigenous residents, who were accustomed to hunting and selling wildlife, were initially opposed to the idea.
Chen Mei-hui, associate professor in the NPUST Department of Forestry, led a team of students to Sheding to hold working meetings and communicate with residents household by household. The team made the four-hour round trip twice a week for several years in its efforts to bring inhabitants around.
Cai Zheng-rong, former Sheding community manager, at first headed opposition to the project, driving his pickup truck along Kenting’s main street with loudspeakers calling for removal of the park headquarters. “We didn’t believe that ecotourism could rejuvenate our community,” he said. “We thought it would leave us without any means of support.”
He changed his mind, however, after Chen explained the meaning and value of ecotourism as a way of life. Cai is now a mentor to guides, advisor to park headquarters and ecotourism consultant to other communities on the Hengchun Peninsula.
Residents have gradually come to accept Chen’s ideals, training as guides, voluntarily forming their own forest patrols, conducting ecological surveys and doing their utmost to protect wildlife such as the Chinese bullfrog, Hoplobatrachus rugulosus.
Lin Wen-min, head of the park’s Tourism and Recreation Section, said data from surveys carried out by locals on Formosan sika deer, Hengchun birdwing butterflies, crested serpent eagles and fireflies have been used by scholars in their research. “They’re really committed now.”
Ecotourism numbers in Sheding have been growing, with 4,000 visitors in 2010, climbing to 7,000 in 2011 and topping 10,000 last year.
Chen has now opened more than 20 ecotour routes in Pingtung. Based on her experience in Sheding, and with support from Pingtung County Magistrate Charles Chi-hung Tsao, the Pingtung Forest District Office and Cabinet-level Council of Labor Affairs, she is currently helping the Dalai, Dewen, Dawu and Ali communities in the county’s Sandimen and Wutai districts develop ecotourism along Provincial Highway No. 24. These communities were hard hit by Typhoon Morakot in 2009.
