The Ecological Nanny Who Bridges Conservation and Economics: Chen Mei-hui

In recent years, Pingtung County can be described as a model highlight of domestic ecotourism. Whether it is the "Sika Deer Tracking" at the Sheding tribe beside Kenting National Park on Provincial Highway 26, or the ecotourism of the Ali tribe in Wutai Township, which guards the Rukai sacred sites "Big Ghost Lake and Little Ghost Lake" at the end of Provincial Highway 24, the mountain-and-sea itineraries planned for the southern border by the Community Forestry Research Lab of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology have won universal praise in both conservation and ecotourism circles. They also led the Kenting National Park Headquarters and the Forestry Bureau of the Council of Agriculture to receive the National Sustainable Development Award in ROC years 97 and 102, respectively, for the successful cases of the Sheding tribe and the Ali tribe.

People often assume that ecological conservation and economic development are opposing concepts, but the examples of ecotourism development in the Sheding tribe and Ali tribe of Pingtung County prove that, while upholding the core value of ecological conservation, sustainable economic activity can also be developed. The person who broke through this binary opposition dilemma is Chen Mei-hui, associate professor in the Department of Forestry at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology.