Over the past few weeks, the Legislative Yuan has begun reviewing a bill on marine conservation. Some lawmakers believe it could affect the rights of fishers and indigenous people.
The opposite is true.
Promoting marine conservation helps the economies of fishing and indigenous communities and indirectly aids in consolidating national sovereignty.
The most recent environmental sustainability governance goals include an item focused on ecological diversity. The days of looking at environmental and ecological conservation as a target for economic development are over.
Marine conservation laws are the basis of a sustainable marine economy. Government ministries and political parties should all agree on this.
There are five reasons for doing so.
First, conservation could solve the issue of declining resources in the fishing industry.
Regardless of whether they are specialist academics conducting research or fishers out on the water hauling in a catch, all actors believe fishery resources are becoming scarcer. The leading factors for this decline include global warming, marine pollution, the disappearance of aquatic nurseries such as estuarine mangroves and overfishing.
The law must be used as the basis for investing in research and conservation resources and to reduce harm to fishery resources to effectively regenerate them.
Second, there are opportunities to be derived from the blue economy.
Regardless of whether it is through tourism or consumerism, Taiwanese increasingly support products that help with conservation. The Fushan Fisheries Resource Conservation Area (富山護漁區) situated among Taitung County’s indigenous villages is an excellent example.
Due to damage to the marine ecology caused by overfishing, a moratorium was announced in 2005 prohibiting all fishing in the area. This created an ecologically abundant tourist spot in the intertidal zone along Taitung’s coastline.
The conservation effect was not limited to the off-limits zone either — it spread, resulting in the gradual replenishment of fish in other areas. This brought a doubled economic benefit to the indigenous region’s fishing and tourism industries.
Third, work and project opportunities should be expanded for conservationists and researchers.
There are not enough resources available for Taiwan’s marine ecology research and conservation workers — even when they are developing marine energy resources, they lack fundamental scientific data.
Taiwan and its outlying islands are surrounded by water, and there is abundant biological diversity in these waters.
Focusing more on marine ecology research and conservation could advance the quality and quantity of Taiwan’s marine research, subsequently developing production in areas such as underwater acoustics and uncrewed submersibles.
Fourth, conservation helps to consolidate national sovereignty.
The creation of marine sanctuaries is a global trend, yet behind the scenes, it represents an extension of a nation’s sovereignty.
The US’ marine sanctuaries in the Pacific Ocean were conceived partially with this strategy in mind.
Taiwan could consider this path, using ecological conservation values as a means of solidifying its maritime sovereignty.
Fifth, endangered species need saving.
Ecological diversity is an important marker of sustainable development.
Taiwan has already joined the ranks of developed countries. It ought to have and use proactive regenerative policies to bring endemic endangered organisms back from the brink of extinction.
For example, the nation should pay more attention to the biomarker of marine mammals: Of the population of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins swimming around Taiwan’s waters, there are only about 60, and they are classified as critically endangered.
Taiwan is in dire need of a foundational marine conservation law that could benefit ecological conservation and the marine economy.
Chen Bing-heng is a doctoral candidate in the College of Environmental Studies and Oceanography at National Dong Hwa University.
Translated by Tim Smith
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