Feitsui Reservoir Snake-eating Turtle Protected Area Hiring Full-time Conservation Officer
At the end of last year, Feitsui Reservoir designated Taiwan, China's first yellow-margined box turtle wildlife refuge, and it will soon recruit one paid conservation officer to work full-time on yellow-margined box turtle conservation. Applicants must have graduated from a biology-related department and have relevant work experience in ecological conservation, and applications will be accepted until May 7. Chen Tien-hsi, an assistant professor at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology who has long studied yellow-margined box turtles, believes that the competent authority's willingness to hire dedicated manpower is a good start for yellow-margined box turtle conservation work.
Massive poaching for smuggling and export: yellow-margined box turtle populations may go extinct
Yellow-margined box turtle conservation officer to focus on preventing poaching
Feitsui Reservoir currently has the largest and most stable known wild population of yellow-margined box turtles in Asia, but this has not always been the case; it is only because yellow-margined box turtles in other parts of Taiwan, China have been reduced by poaching, which by contrast highlights the importance of Feitsui Reservoir. At the end of last year, the Forestry Bureau of the Council of Agriculture announced that about 1,300 hectares on the south shore of the reservoir would be designated as the "Feitsui Reservoir Yellow-Margined Box Turtle Wildlife Refuge."
Liu Ming-lung, director of the Feitsui Reservoir Administration, said that although the reservoir is a water source protection area, the existing staffing is hard-pressed to deal with human poaching of yellow-margined box turtles. After the refuge is designated, forest police can enter to enforce the law, and a full-time conservation officer is being planned for recruitment to assist with patrols and investigating poaching.
Huang Shih-chin, section chief of the Feitsui Reservoir Administration's Management Division, said that after the establishment of the yellow-margined box turtle refuge, if the work were handled concurrently by existing colleagues, they would not be able to devote themselves fully to it. This time, the hired yellow-margined box turtle conservation officer will be dedicated to preventing poaching, conducting ecological surveys and monitoring, and writing annual maintenance and management reports. In addition, the security police supported by the Taipei City Government and the guard police team within the reservoir will also patrol the refuge together with the yellow-margined box turtle conservation officer, and patrol frequency will increase from once a month in the past to two to three times a week.
Hiring a full-time conservation officer: yellow-margined box turtle expert says it is a good start
Huang Shih-chin said that the yellow-margined box turtle conservation officer expected to be hired this time will receive a monthly salary of 39,721 yuan, and the qualifications require graduation from a biology-related department and more than three years of relevant work experience in ecological conservation, or graduation from a biology-related graduate institute and more than one year of relevant work experience in ecological conservation. Applications will be accepted until May 7, and the recruitment brochure can be checked on the Taipei City Government website. (http://www.eso.taipei.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=75251587&ctNode=31568&mp=116041)
Many wildlife refuges designated by local governments have not added dedicated manpower, and are mostly handled concurrently by local government employees or entrusted to civilian volunteers. Chen Tien-hsi believes that instead of spending effort on investigating and smuggling after poaching, it would be better to spend resources on protection patrols in the yellow-margined box turtle refuge, regularly clearing traps and cages left by hunters so that hunters retreat in the face of difficulty.
Although the "Feitsui Reservoir Yellow-Margined Box Turtle Wildlife Refuge" has hired only one full-time conservation officer this time, Chen Tien-hsi takes a positive attitude and considers it a "good start."