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Is the Ecological Green Boat open now? It is open, but there are things to keep in mind

General News By Emily Carter 0 views

The Yilan County Dongshan River "Ecological Green Boat Project" that all parties had awaited for 20 years was originally scheduled to be operated under contract by the county government, creating a theme park centered on ecological education combined with in-depth community tours, but because county councilors questioned that the county government "smacked of favoritism," the budget was deleted, setting an awkward record of "operated for 8 days before being handed back to the county government for self-operation."

Although the county government expressed helplessness, local residents said bluntly, "Don't the DPP councilors outnumber the KMT ones? How did this happen?" The county government's Agriculture Department and Department of Industry, Commerce and Tourism responded that the Ecological Green Boat would not disappear, but would try to balance mass tourism and niche in-depth travel.

After 20 years of waiting, the Renhe Foundation operated for 8 days before returning it to the county government

The Yilan County Dongshan River Ecological Green Boat was formerly the "Forest Park," planned as early as 20 years ago, in the hope that visitors coming to Yilan could deeply experience the wetlands, rice paddies, various ecological landscapes and communities within Yilan County, yet its opening was repeatedly postponed due to insufficient funding or wind disasters, until April 22 of this year (2016), when it was finally opened and operated by the county government's contracted Renhe Foundation

However, when KMT county councilors questioned that the operating terms the county government gave Renhe were "too generous, with suspicion of favoritism," unexpectedly, in a council where the DPP held a majority, they succeeded in one stroke in deleting a budget of 9 million yuan. With no funding support, Renhe returned the operating rights to the county government at the end of April.

At the time, Department of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Director Chen Chang-wei said he would definitely play an integrating roleIt is understood that currently park management, firefly restoration and wetland maintenance are the responsibility of the Department of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, while the park's long-term development policy has been taken up by the Agricultural Development Foundation under the Agriculture Department. Agriculture Department Director Chen Te-hsing said he would hope to maintain Renhe's established on-site environmental education goals, though he would also take into account the tourism needs of the general public and niche in-depth experience activities.

The KMT holds only 1/3, how was the budget deleted? The county government is also embarrassed

In fact, of the 34 seats in the Yilan County Council, the DPP holds 12 and the KMT 10, which made Huang Chiu-chu even more curious: why did a bill proposed by a KMT councilor to cut the budget pass?

Fellow councilor Hsueh Cheng-yi said that according to her understanding, local county councilors failed to fully understand that ecological guided tours differ from volunteer guided tours, and it was because "no heads-up was given first" that this disaster was suffered. According to Renhe, when it previously accepted an interview with NewsMarket, it also said that from this experience it had learned "that one must communicate with councilors, as a lesson." Was it really because "no heads-up was given" that the budget was cut? A county government official awkwardly said, "That's hard to say."

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