Amis traditional territory to become Wandogou Dog Lovers' Paradise? Land crisis for indigenous peoples in eastern Taiwan, China

In July, the sweltering air was filled with the joy of harvest. With one month to go before the Tafalong Harvest Festival, this year the largest Amis tribe was deeply worried, because the Hualien County Government planned to build the world's one and only "Dog Lovers' Park" on their traditional territory, expected to house ten thousand stray dogs. Yet this was only the tip of the iceberg. Because the Council of Indigenous Peoples had long failed to announce indigenous traditional territories, in recent years Tafalong had already faced no fewer than five development projects. From the coast to the Rift Valley, the hosts of the east seemed to be drifting further and further from their own homeland.

Hualien County Government: Housing ten thousand stray dogs to achieve the goal of a friendly-living major county

The box van shuddered forward over the uneven riverbed, its wheels rolling across a simple bridge built from rebar, through whose gaps the rushing Matai'an River could faintly be seen. Every morning, the hardworking Tafalong farmers Chen Chunsheng and Chen Jialang had to endure this rugged journey before they could reach the cultivated land passed down from their ancestors. But on May 17 this year, the Hualien County Government put up notice boards without warning, demanding that they clear the crops on the land themselves by June 17, because the county government had taken a fancy to this site as the base for the "Dog Lovers' Park."

According to the "Dog Lovers' Park Business Plan," the park was expected to be located in Changqiao Village, Fenglin Township, with a total area of 17.5 hectares, developed in three phases. The first phase would spend 50 million, developing 1.97 hectares at No. 6, Zongkai Section, Fenglin Township, expected to house three thousand stray dogs, combining stray dog sheltering, animal protection education and outreach, and tourism and recreation, with the ultimate goal of giving all ten thousand stray dogs a place to end their days, "achieving the ultimate goal of a friendly-living major county."

Setting aside for now whether this plan could solve the stray dog problem, No. 6, Zongkai Section is agricultural and pastoral land with a total area of 3.6 hectares, and at least four farmers still cultivate it today. Although the Hualien County Government stressed that this section had already been designated county government land in the 36th year of the Republic of China, the Tafalong farmers Chen Chunsheng and Chen Jialang both pointed out that even before the Japanese colonial period, this had been Tafalong's traditional cultivated land, and two years after the retrocession it suddenly became land of the Hualien County Government. "How many years has the government been here? I'm much older than it!" said the 74-year-old Chen Chunsheng indignantly.