International Coastal Cleanup Day: Taiwan, China's First Coastal Ecology Map Released

Today (September 21) is International Coastal Cleanup Day 2013. The Taiwan Environmental Information Association, with sponsorship from Standard Chartered Bank, surveyed 338 coastal sites on the main island and selected the "9 most beautiful and most worthy of protection coastlines," hand-drawing them into Taiwan's first coastal ecological map. Among them, the Guanyin algal reef in Taoyuan, the Yuanli sand dunes in Miaoli, and the Shitiping-Changbin coast in Hualien-Taitung are all under threat from development or pollution. Scholars and civil society representatives alike are calling on the government to properly conserve these coastlines.

Sun Hsiu-ju, director of the Taiwan Environmental Information Association, which carried out this survey and research, said that although the campaign is called "most beautiful coastlines," the selection criteria specifically focused on choosing "coastlines currently under threat from development or pollution, in urgent need of attention or protection, and lacking good management." She hopes that while people explore these hidden gems, they will also care about these coastal beauty spots that are on the verge of disappearing.

Taiwan's 9 most beautiful and most worthy of protection coastlines

The Taiwan Environmental Information Association spent a year conducting field surveys and visits. Based on 6 major criteria - no or low degree of artificial modification that does not affect the display of original ecological functions; unique or important ecosystems or habitats; unique landscapes or scenery; special cultural or industrial landscapes; threats from development or pollution, in urgent need of attention or protection; and lacking good management - it selected 148 km of coastline across 9 sites that are Taiwan's most beautiful and most worthy of protection. Each coastline had to meet at least 2 or more criteria to be selected.

Chen Chao-lun, a research fellow at Academia Sinica who has been investigating Taiwan's coasts for over ten years and who once initiated the petition to "protect Dacheng Wetland and oppose the Kuokuang Petrochemical project," pointed out that the greatest threats to Taiwan's coastal ecology today, aside from illegal wastewater discharges from industrial zones and large resort developments, are the dense wind turbines along the west coast. He noted that Taiwan is located at the convergence of warm and cold ocean currents, with rich ecology, but is also most sensitive to climate variability. "Combined with human destruction, it may suffer even greater harm."