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FEATURE: Environmental vacations grow in popularity

Volunteers pull out goose grass and other unwanted water plants from wetlands in the Yonglai Ecological Park on Yangmingshan on Monday last week. PHOTO: CNA

Working vacations have become a fad in recent years, with growing numbers of people choosing to spend their holidays with their sleeves rolled up and working the land.

Capital Engineering Corp recently turned a company outing into an eco-friendly holiday, with vice general manager Shih Chi-yuan (史濟元) leading 12 employees to volunteer at Yangmingshan National Park.

They took part in a program the Taiwan Environmental Information Association (TEIA) has organized every weekend from May to September over the last five years in Yonglai Ecological Park to rid the park of goose grass, an invasive alien species, and Leersia hexandra, a dominant native grass to preserve the ecological balance of the Lengshueikeng (冷水坑) wetlands.

Wearing wetsuits, the group waded through the muddy wetlands, finding out how difficult it is to walk in sticky mud.

“It was more difficult pulling my legs from the mud than pulling the weeds,” Shih said. “Only now have I come to realize how invasive this pan-tropical species is and why it is so difficult to tame.”

“Through this volunteer program, we got first-hand experience and saw for ourselves how goose grass has affected local aquatic plant growth ... In the future, we will use more eco-friendly and environmentally sound thinking when preparing environmental impact assessments for our customers.” — Shih Chi-yuan, vice general manager of Capital Engineering Corp

“Through this volunteer program, we got first-hand experience and saw for ourselves how goose grass has affected local aquatic plant growth,” Shih said. “In the future, we will use more eco-friendly and environmentally sound thinking when preparing environmental impact assessments for our customers.”

The working holiday concept is not new. Volunteers have long used their leisure time to build bridges for financially strapped townships or repair houses for disadvantaged families.

Eco-working holidays, however, focus on doing something for the environment. Participants plant trees, clean up scenic areas in the mountains or work on community beautification projects.

TEIA organized its first eco-working holiday in August 2004. In its first project, it enlisted volunteers to help build an artificial wetland to recycle wastewater and plant millet in the Taiping ecological farm along the Lijia Trail in Taitung County.

The project also involved bird watching, river tracing, participation in Aboriginal festivals and visits to ancient tribal sites.

Sun Hsiu-ju (孫秀如), a TEIA department director, said the program allowed participants to become involved in nature and local cultures, relax their bodies and minds, and help the environment.

TEIA has since organized many types of eco-working holidays to maintain the ecological balance in diverse natural habitats, Sun said.

More than 1,000 people have taken part in the programs, which have included protecting sand in the Cigu (七股) Wetlands in Tainan County, using traditional, eco-friendly building techniques to restore an historic tobacco facility in Hualien County and repairing and painting the walls of rundown buildings on Lanyu (Orchid Island, 蘭嶼).

Last summer, the association collaborated with the Taiwan Marine Environmental Education Association and Academia Sinica’s Biodiversity Research Center to protect a new habitat: coral reefs.

The group enlisted volunteer divers to work with local communities in northeastern Taiwan, on Green Island (綠島) and Orchid Island, Penghu County’s Siaoliouciou (小琉球) and Shanyuan Beach in Taitung County to check on the conditions of reefs in those areas and collect data to gain a better understanding of the areas’ waters.

“All of our programs involve a great deal of work ... but the hardships have not stopped participants,” Sun said. “The number of people choosing this form of vacation and registering for our programs has been steadily increasing.”

Given Taiwan’s vulnerability to natural calamities, such as earthquakes and typhoons, Sun said she believed there was still ample room for Taiwan to champion environmental volunteering through well-designed eco-working holidays.

Government agencies and private organizations have also organized such working vacations.

Lin Wen-min, director of Kending National Park’s Nanrenshan Station (南仁山), said her office organized six two-day and one-night eco-working packages in August and last month that drew 137 people to clean up garbage in the Chufengbi (出風鼻) protected area on Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島).

Members of the public are barred from the 7km coastline without prior permission. The area boasts unusually shaped reef rock formations and much biodiversity, but is often polluted by trash swept onto the beach by high tides.

Each volunteer had to walk two to three hours to reach the beach and picked up an average of two bags of trash, which originated in China, Hong Kong and Malaysia, Lin said.

The response to the beach cleanup was more enthusiastic than organizers had expected.

“Ten senior high school students took part in the program along with their parents, who encouraged their children’s participation to enhance their environmental awareness and altruism,” Lin said.

The package had some conventional perks, including a nighttime guided tour of the national park and a stay in an eco-friendly inn that featured local cuisine.

“As well as providing a new vacation option, working holidays offer a new promise in helping revitalize local economies,” Lin said.
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