A natural coastline is a gift to the future

The construction of the coastal highway girding Taiwan is almost complete, with the exception of a section of Taiwan Highway 26 that stretches from Taitung County's Anshuo (安朔) tribal area on to Pingtung County's Hsuhai Village (旭海村), Kangtsai Village (港仔村) and ending in Jialeshui (佳樂水).

Since the Japanese era, both the engineering community and the public have hoped for such a coast highway. But from the perspective of sustainable development, this goal must be reconsidered.

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications' Directorate General of Highways began the construction of the Anshuo-Hsuhai section early this year.

The starting point is Anshuo, which is also the eastern end of the Southern Cross-Island Highway and was formerly called Alangyi (阿朗壹). In 1877, Qing officials constructed a trail from Hengchun (恆春) to Peinan (卑南), which was named the Alangyi Trail (阿朗壹古道). In the past, the trail was used by the Pingpu Aboriginal tribes when travelling to eastern Taiwan. In addition, it was the trail used by tribal leader Pan Wen-chieh (潘文杰) of Langchiao (瑯嶠), the old name for Hengchun, when he led an English explorer to visit the Peinan tribe in 1887.

In other words, the trail is filled with rich historical significance.

The beautiful scenic view of the Anshuo-Hsuhai section was highly praised by Wu Tsan-cheng (吳贊誠), a Qing official, for its originality. Even today, we can still see the natural beauty of the Anshuo-Hsuhai coastal trail.

Other than by visiting fishermen, the trail is little used. Given that there are no wave breakers, no wave protection dikes and no other artificial infrastructure, the natural environment along the trail has been preserved.

The coastline is like a raw piece of jade, with a gravel bankseveral kilometers long, beautiful sand dunes, capes, natural rocky sea stacks, coral reefs, coastal forests and coconut crabs. Because of the dead-end trail, the natural ecological environment along the trail can be preserved. Thanks to inconvenience of transportation, this last undeveloped piece of Taiwan's natural environment is safeguarded and the lack of highway construction means that the trail maintains its tranquility and wildness. Now the highway's construction will cut into this land, creating irreparable harm to the ecology.

In recent years, studies on the development of road ecology have been carried out in the international community, helping us better understand the large-scale impact of road construction on ecological systems. The total length of Taiwan's highways exceeds 38,000km, enough to circle Taiwan 40 times. We are lucky to still have a natural coastal area undamaged by highway construction, allowing us to experience the direct connection between mountain and river, land and sea, without the disruption caused by highway construction.

The key to improving the overall quality of Taiwan's ecological system lies in the improvement of the highway network. We need a section of coastline completely free of any damage from highway construction as a control sample.

Whether Taiwan can rid itself of the illusion that "artificial capital" can be improved by highway construction and how this will deplete Taiwan's "natural capital" is closely related to the question of whether Taiwan will be able to achieve sustainable development. Leaving a short stretch of coastline from Anshuo to Hsuhai without manmade damage would be a symbol for the promise of sustainable development. It would also give the public infinite benefit in future.