Solar panels appear in black-faced spoonbill habitat: Chenglong Wetland's decades-long vision for a conservation village faces challenges
There is a small seaside village that, more than 30 years ago, was swallowed by seawater after a typhoon struck and the sea poured in. The only farmland it had became wasteland, and the villagers suffered the acute pain of losing their land. Yet over these years, this field reclaimed by the sea has gradually become an ecological paradise: migratory birds come to roost, shellfish are abundant, and NGOs have also come, helping the community revive through the vitality of the wetland, building consensus among residents, and developing a new green economy. A vision of coexistence and shared prosperity is just around the corner.
This small village is Chenglong Village, Kouhu Township, Yunlin County, which in recent years has become known for its wetland art festival and environmental education. But Chenglong Village has recently run into a major problem: solar power projects have been built one after another around the wetland.
This matter alarmed the cadres of the Chenglong Village community. They worry that the development of solar power projects not only threatens migratory bird habitat and diminishes the wetland's conservation function, but also affects the path of community development that Chenglong Village has accumulated over more than a decade. Young people who returned home to work the land said bluntly, "If the land is all planted with solar panels, why should we come back?"
However, as solar power operators and land brokers keep lobbying locally, the hard-won resident support for wetland conservation has been shaken by the influence of high solar land rents. Today, not a few villagers openly express the hope of developing solar power, gradually challenging the vision that has focused on combining wetland conservation with community development for more than a decade, and leaving this once highly cohesive community force facing conflict and tension.
Seas change into mulberry fields: the story of Chenglong Village and reconciliation between people and nature
Chenglong Village lies in a corner of southwestern Yunlin County. On August 22, 1986, Typhoon Wayne struck the southwestern coast, and seawater poured into the village along the streams. Chenglong Village's farmland was soaked in seawater for a full month. Because of long-term land subsidence, the seawater could no longer recede. Losing the land, the villagers also lost the hope of life, and despairing villagers left one after another.
Because this land soaked in seawater had not been cultivated for a long time, it became an important habitat for migratory birds passing through. In 2005, the Forestry Bureau began piloting ecological compensation in Chenglong Village, hoping villagers would gradually change their thinking of "losing land and hating water birds," and starting in 2007 it invited the Guanshu Educational Foundation to come to Chenglong Village to provide environmental education.
To help villagers understand that the community can still coexist and prosper with this flooded land, the Guanshu Foundation launched ecological interpretation here, allowing visitors to learn about global warming and land subsidence. Starting in 2010, it also began holding the Chenglong Wetland International Environmental Art Festival, letting Chenglong Village, through artists' eyes, look anew at this "land taken back by heaven," in the hope of achieving reconciliation between nature and humans.
But in recent years, solar power projects have been popping up one after another around Chenglong Village, deeply worrying community figures who have devoted themselves to Chenglong Wetland for years. Tian Ri-zheng, who has strongly supported community development and wetland conservation behind the scenes, feels an even greater sense of crisis.
Boss Tian tells it from the beginning: the pain of losing farmland, restored through wetland conservation
Tian Ri-zheng, commonly called "Boss Tian" in the community, is nominally an adviser to the community development association, but in reality he is the main pillar supporting Chenglong community's push for wetland conservation. His father, Tian Sang-qing, was the village's traditional Chinese-language teacher and was deeply respected by the villagers. From childhood, Tian Ri-zheng was steeped in this environment and became an opinion leader in the villagers' eyes, eloquent and resourceful.
He proudly pointed to Chenglong Wetland's most representative landscape artwork, "Connection," and said, "This bridge has 22 pillars. Other artists' works have broken, but only this bridge has not broken. Do you know why? Because this bridge was built by the villagers themselves. How could they bear to let it break? As soon as it breaks, the villagers come running to repair it."
Boss Tian remembers clearly that because the community had a funding gap, the directors and supervisors pooled money in amounts of 5,000 and 10,000 to make up the shortfall, and he was always the first to put up money to cover it. "It was said the community would pay it back once it had money, but in fact everyone knew the community had no money," he said with a grin.
"The older generation of Chenglong villagers still cannot accept that their land was taken back by heaven because of one typhoon. They say evil spirits haunt this place and tell people not to go near it." Boss Tian, who lived through the dramatic change, described this most painful chapter in Chenglong Village's history with sorrow, explaining why some villagers still feel unresolved anger when facing Chenglong Wetland.
Wasteland becomes treasure land, reconnecting with the villagers
Tian Ri-zheng said that it was not until the Forestry Bureau began leasing land from the villagers that things changed: "The government stepped in to rent land for a bird area, giving migratory birds from northern countries a wintering place." Only then did the villagers know the land had not been abandoned; it had simply taken another form, yet continued to nurture life. The villagers also came to realize that the land did not need to be fully developed, and that humans must learn to coexist with nature. This government action also redeemed the villagers from the pain of losing their land.
Later, Chenglong Village made its name with the wetland art festival. Many villagers living away from home returned to the village and even donated money to the community development association. For the villagers, whether it was the wetland or the art season, what mattered was that through more than a decade of effort the village had re-embraced this "land originally lost" and carried it forward.
The villagers named the work they made together "Connection," because this bridge was formerly a buffalo cart path, and most villagers took this road to farm in "Houbi Garden." The "farmland" everyone had lost has now returned to the village in the form of "wetland," once again "connecting" and becoming part of everyone's life.
But now the solar power crisis hangs over them like dark clouds. With a worried look, Tian Ri-zheng said, "After advocating for so many years, I deeply fear that one day the villagers will no longer believe the wetland can change the village's future." He worries that after solar power enters, Chenglong Village will deviate from its original development path.
Environmental education worker: the water area on the north side where the solar project is located is a secret habitat for black-faced spoonbills
Around the wetland on the north side of Provincial Highway 61, earth filling and pile driving have begun, ground-mounted solar panels have also been installed one after another behind Chenglong Elementary School, and many more land deals are being signed. Facing solar power's gradual encroachment, Wang Chao-mei, who helped create the wetland environmental art festival and has accompanied Chenglong for more than ten years, feels especially heavy-hearted. Although she has left her position at the Guanshu Foundation, she continues to accompany the Chenglong community as a volunteer.
Over the past decade and more, Wang Chao-mei and her partners have continued to observe and record changes around Chenglong Wetland. "The ecological activity on the north side is, in a broad sense, part of the whole of Chenglong Wetland, and in terms of ecological value it is actually higher than the south side. Every year large numbers of migratory birds fly here from Siberia to winter, among them internationally conserved species such as the black-faced spoonbill. But to protect the migratory birds from disturbance, for more than ten years we have carefully avoided exposing the preciousness of the north-side wetland," she said.
Wang Chao-mei, who works in environmental education, believes that the most important thing about Chenglong Wetland is not the results of public-private cooperation in wetland conservation, but the thinking of these villagers. If the villagers had not sincerely embraced the wetland and held hope for ecology and local development, Chenglong Village, which became famous because of the wetland art festival, might well have found it hard to resist the temptation of outside resources and might not still be maintaining such steady steps today.
However, solar power brings the temptation of high rents, with the market rate at 400,000 per hectare per year, averaging 40,000 per fen. By contrast, the ecological compensation the Forestry Bureau provides landowners is 5,500 per fen, a price gap of nearly ten times. After some landowners in the village receive rent, they actively promote the benefits of solar development. For Chenglong Village, the vision of combining wetland with community development must now face competition and cooperation with solar power.
Community association: we do not want the village to give up its long-term vision for short-term interests
Guo Ming-yuan, chairman of the Chenglong Community Development Association, is 45 this year. He originally worked in construction, returned home ten years ago to farm, and focuses mainly on organic cultivation. His upright character led him to be elected community chairman six years ago.
He said that Chenglong Village promotes wetland education and community building in the hope of pursuing long-term sustainable planning, so when outsiders wanted to expand the Chenglong Wetland Environmental Art Festival, the community instead hoped to rethink its sustainable planning. "We walk very slowly, but we hope every step is solid." He hopes the community will not forget the ecological restoration work it originally wanted to promote just for a short-term burst of fame or a temporary wave of tourists.
Yet one solar project after another has appeared around Chenglong Village, truly unsettling local hearts. Operators actively visit landowners, stuff landowners' mailboxes with materials, and even hold only brief explanation sessions, then rush to sign contracts and pay deposits with landowners as soon as the session ends. These actions leave residents troubled and confused.
"There are clearly so many rooftops, why not use them? Instead they insist on developing sensitive land around the wetland." Guo Ming-yuan rarely raised his voice. "Now solar panels are being built everywhere. A minority profits, but the consequence is that the whole community's wetland ecology, community development, and vision for life and production are all sacrificed." He could not help but sigh.
Having taken "Wetland Detective" courses since childhood, conservation seeds have already been sown locally
In the eyes of young community workers, solar power has brought back the old idea of developing "wasteland unsuitable for farming," once again stirring in many people's hearts the thought of developing and using the "wetland."
Because of the opportunity to serve as a volunteer at the environmental art festival, Lin Pei-zhen came from Taichung to Chenglong Village and became a community project manager. What she cannot forget is that at an explanation session for a wetland conservation and utilization plan, villagers at the time bitterly said "the wetland is wasteland" and argued that every possible means should be used to develop it. "Hearing that, my heart ached."
Facing this subtle struggle over development direction, Lin Pei-zhen believes, "As an outsider, I can only keep doing my original work. As for how Chenglong Village will develop, that can only be left for the villagers to decide. We can only do our best to communicate, but the final decision still rests in residents' hands."
Lin Pei-zhen believes the next generation will certainly think differently. Young people in Chenglong Village under 20 have taken "Wetland Detective" courses since elementary school and receive tour guide training when they grow up. These teenagers believe that combining wetland conservation can make Chenglong Village better.
Returning youth: if our hometown is all solar panels, why should we come back?
Lin Yun-zhen, 27 this year, is the current secretary-general of the Chenglong community and one of the young people who returned home under the influence of wetland environmental education. She believes the most important thing for the community is to combine wetland conservation and use with community development, so that local young people can still return to Chenglong Village after studying away to continue serving and stay connected to community development.
To this end, the Chenglong community rented Warehouse No. 82 next to Anlong Temple as an information station and cafe, and called on Chenglong Village students living away to return on holidays to continue serving and introduce visitors to their hometown. These young people have participated in wetland environmental education courses since childhood and have complete tour guide training, understanding the stories of their hometown's industries, culture, and wetland ecology.
As solar power presses closer step by step, Lin Yun-zhen said frankly, "I hope the scope of the wetland protection area can be expanded. Otherwise, if the land is all planted with solar panels, why should we come back? To wash solar panels? The reason I would come back is precisely that I hope the ecological environment can be well protected, so the village can take a different path." (To be continued)
