Protect the habitats of endangered species such as the leopard cat, and get paid for it! Covering 2,000 hectares, payments for not using herbicides or poisoned bait

Farmers conserve endangered species and treat farmland as habitat, and the government will pay an "ecological salary"! The Forestry Bureau today (22nd) announced two ecological service payment promotion programs, for "endangered species" and "important habitats." Targeting four endangered creatures - the leopard cat, the grass owl, the otter and the pheasant-tailed jacana - each hectare of farmland can receive between 8,000 and 30,000 yuan, while community patrol monitoring can earn up to 110,000 yuan in reward money, with self-reporting bonuses counted separately. For important habitats, there are paddy fields, water terraced fields, onshore fish ponds and private protection forests, with payments of 30,000 to 70,000 yuan per hectare.

The first phase of this program lasts three years and officially launches on January 1 next year. Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung stated that next year the expected coverage will be 2,000 hectares, with an annual budget of 200 million yuan, currently under review in the Legislative Yuan, and in the future it will be decided whether to expand based on results.

Shallow hills and plains are rich in species, and the government is paying farmers to protect living things

Forestry Bureau Director Lin Hua-ching explained that domestic shallow hill and plain areas are not within protected zones, yet 64% of species listed in the plant Red List and 55% of protected animals live in them, and these areas are also the regions most vulnerable to development pressure and conventional agricultural farming methods. To allow farmers to make a living while maintaining biodiversity, ecological service payments are a key.

"This converts ecological behavior into currency; farmers are land managers, and the government gives them a salary." Lin Hua-ching stated that the land-based subsidy system within ecological service payments has been practiced in many European countries for years. The Forestry Bureau began a pilot program for Gongliao water terraced fields in 2011, and in recent years has successively introduced ecological maintenance labor subsidies for the pheasant-tailed jacana and the leopard cat. Last year a pilot was already conducted in Miaoli for the leopard cat, and after a year of review, it will officially launch in 2021.

Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung stated that agriculture is by no means only about production. Taking rice as an example, the output value of the nation's 280,000 hectares of paddy fields is about 40 billion yuan, but ecological values such as water conservation and serving as biological habitat exceed 200 billion yuan.