What exactly is nature's collage brick?
In recent years, camping has become the worst top choice for holiday leisure activities. Even without camping gear, people still make plans with a few friends to go and try it out, as a kind of fashion and a symbol of yuppie style. But in my memory, camping was something that only happened on school field trips in our day, and not even most people liked it. Yet at some point, the old way of traveling, staying in inns and hotels, became outdated, and sleeping inside a tent, cooking your own food in the wild, feeling the mountain breeze and watching the stars became the trend.
Camping is absolutely a brand-new experience, and with today's advances in camping gear and its diversity, camping is genuinely much more comfortable than it used to be. Friends and family chatting about everything in a natural setting, the exchange of feelings and the accumulation of good memories, have also become extra value of camping activities. But have you ever thought that camping activities actually carry hidden risks?
Of the campgrounds springing up everywhere right now, only a few are actually under regulation. Apart from campgrounds inside national parks, inside forest recreation areas, and inside approved leisure farms, almost none have gone through legal application, but the key point is that people do not know how to apply.
Recently, many campgrounds open to the public for business have been reported for violating the "Regulations for Non-Urban Land Use Control," and many operators also want to apply to become legally approved campground operators, but the government currently has no complete regulatory system for campgrounds.
Simply put, campgrounds can only be established on certain types of land:
According to Article 6, Appendix 1 of the "Regulations for Non-Urban Land Use Control," the types of land that permit the establishment of camping facilities or camping and picnic facilities are as follows:
●Class C building land - outdoor recreation facilities - camping and picnic facilities - the Public Works Bureau is the competent authority for the land use
●Agriculture and animal husbandry land - leisure agriculture facilities (excluding industrial zones and river zones) - camping facilities - the Agriculture Bureau is the competent authority for the land use
●Forestry land - leisure agriculture facilities (excluding industrial zones, river zones and forest zones) - camping facilities - the Agriculture Bureau is the competent authority for the land use
●Aquaculture land - leisure agriculture facilities (excluding industrial zones and river zones) - camping facilities - the Agriculture Bureau is the competent authority for the land use
●Recreation land - outdoor recreation facilities - camping and picnic facilities - the Public Works Bureau is the competent authority for the land use
●As for land located in urban land - protection zones, establishment may be approved on the condition that it does not hinder the designated purpose of the protection zone - temporary recreation and camping facilities - the Urban Development Bureau is the competent authority for the land use
For the above types of land, both permitted use and approved establishment are subject to the control regulations of their respective responsible authorities. From the perspective of running a campground, setting up a campground is by no means simply establishing camping platforms. There should also be parking and sanitary facilities (toilets or showers), simple amusement facilities (combat obstacle course facilities, etc.), or accommodation facilities (such as homestays or hotels) to win consumers' favor through a compound business model. Otherwise, honestly, camping alone is pretty boring. Moreover, some elders or children like lying under the starry sky, but that does not mean they like sleeping on the grass, so many people say they are camping but still stay in hotels or homestays.
Are campgrounds the next version of illegal farmhouses?
If we dig deeper, can agriculture and animal husbandry land, forestry land, and aquaculture land permit the establishment of "toilets or showers," "combat obstacle course facilities," "homestays or hotels," or "parking lots"? The answer is impossible. Because agricultural land must all be used for agriculture-related purposes, some people then thought of applying to establish a "leisure farm."
According to the "Agricultural Development Act": "'Leisure agriculture' refers to agricultural operations that use rural landscape, natural ecology and environmental resources, combined with agriculture, forestry, fishery and animal husbandry production, agricultural business activities, rural culture and farm family life, to provide citizens with leisure and to enhance citizens' experience of agriculture and rural areas." From this it can be seen that the operational content of a campground is completely inconsistent with the operational spirit of "leisure agriculture."
Although a "leisure farm" may establish a "campground," if the operational content of the entire leisure farm consists only of the performance of the campground, it also does not conform to the original intent of leisure agriculture.
In addition, some operators who have converted farmhouses into homestays use the remaining farmland of their agricultural land after deducting the farmhouse to engage in non-agricultural camping facilities or other facilities, which likewise violates the "Regulations for Non-Urban Land Use Control."
Importantly, the safety and rights of consumers are completely left out of consideration. It is very clear that large-scale construction in mountain forests may not only damage the integrity of farmland, but may also cause related damage to soil and water conservation.
Although camping activities add many good memories and bring people closer to one another, have you, in the process of accumulating these life experiences, caused irreversible harm to nature?
The campgrounds springing up everywhere may in the future be another version of illegal hot spring hotels, another version of Qingjing homestays, another version of illegal farmhouses. If we all still ignore this matter, if we all still merely consume nature selfishly.
