Mon, Jan 17, 2000 page2

• An endangered bird on a vanishing wetland

  • By Chiu Yu-Tzu / STAFF REPORTER
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  The sight of the black-faced spoonbill (黑面琵鷺) foraging for food on their Chiku wetland (七股溼地) wintering site in Tainan County may soon be only a memory.

  The passage of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Pinnan Industrial Complex project, regarded by some local residents as a sign of a promising future, is also the prelude to a requiem for the birds.

  "The development of the Pinnan project is followed by an unavoidable disappearance of the wetland, which is essential to the bird's survival," Huang Kun-cher (黃琨哲), a conservationist from the Wild Bird Society in Tainan County (台南縣野鳥學會), told the Taipei Times.

  

  Black-faced spoonbills fill the skies at the Chiku wetlands in Tainan County, their winter nesting grounds. Around 500 returned to Taiwan this winter, more than half of the world's population of the bird.

  PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

  On a peaceful January morning, standing by established professional telescopes on the protecting embankment of the Tsengwen River (曾文溪), Huang and his colleagues are waiting for the arrival of 400 students from Hsinhua junior high school (新化國中) in Tainan County.

  The bird they have all come to see was first spotted in Taiwan on the west coast by a British scientist who recorded their appearance in Anping (安平), Tainan County in 1893.

  However, local scientists and environmentalists in Taiwan did not begin comprehensive research on the bird until 1988, when environmentalists in Hong Kong first alerted people to the dangers of disappearing wetlands and the impact it could have on the spoonbill.

  

  A group of junior high school students listens to a lecture on the importance of wetlands conservation for the continued survival of black-faced spoonbills.

  PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

  Huang says it is becoming common for local environmental groups to greet and explain the plight of the bird to students who come to the wetlands on field trips.

  "The truth is, though, that telling the story of the spoonbill to crowds of curious students flooding in to Chiku from other counties during the weekends is almost more work than my real job during the week," Huang joked.

  The calls by environmentalists in Taiwan have piqued the interest of people who come to Chiku to catch a look at the migratory bird. The village of Chiku is a typical of many of those on the west coast: a small community struggling against declining fishery and oyster-raising industries.

  

  Students scan the horiaon for the first returning birds.

  HOTOGRAPHS BY CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES

  "There are quite a lot of visitors. But few of them have ever really thought of the future of Chiku," Huang said.

  In 1994, local residents began to embrace the planned development of the Pinnan Industrial Complex which was proposed by petrochemical and steel-making companies -- Tuntex Group (東帝士) and Yieh-loong Co (燁隆). The promise of new jobs and a better standard of living made many living in the area support the project.

  This, however, made environmentalists take notice.

  "The tale of the passage of the environmental assessment for the Pinnan project is really a heart-breaking story of greed and the vulnerability of nature," Huang said.

  According to conservationists, the world population of the black-faced spoonbill is estimated to be around 800 as of last year.

  The birds leave their breeding sites -- uninhabited islets near the Korean Peninsula -- at the end of summer and fly to southeast Asia where they will stay until April.

  "However, Taiwan seems to the bird's favorite wintering site. We recorded about 530 black-faced spoonbills at the Tsengwen estuary near Chiku wetland last year, while there were only 24 in Vietnam, 164 in Hong Kong and 50 in Japan," said Wu Su-chen (吳素珍), a member of the Wild Bird Society in Tainan County.

  In addition to emphasizing the scarcity of the spoonbill, Wu likes to talk about the bird when meeting visitors or students in the field.

  Wu says that the bird poses no threat to fisherman because of the limited amount of food the spoonbills eat.

  "They catch small fishes or invertebrates (無脊椎動物) by using their spoon-like bills to stir up shallow water on the wetland or at fish farms," Wu said.

  "That's why we local residents call them `La Puei' (撓杯, literally stirring something in a cup) in Taiwanese," Wu said, adding that "La" means to stir and Pei, spoons.

  Rushing to be the first to see a distant flock of dozens of black-faced spoonbills on the wetland, an excited group of junior high students used information given by Wu to tell the difference between white egrets, a commonly-seen bird at Chiku, and black-faced spoonbills.

  "Black-faced spoonbills fly with their necks stretched out straight while white egrets fly with their necks in an S-shape," said a student.

  Unfortunately, the students are unaware of the impact the Pinnan Industrial Complex would have on their ability to watch the birds.

  Teachers worry about serious damage to the ecology of the Chiku wetlands that may be caused by the development.

  "I'm afraid that the living teaching materials here may soon be gone. For students, observing living things in the field is the most effective way to learn about the ecology," said Shih Li-mao (施利茂), a biology teacher who had arranged a field trip.

  At another bird-watching kiosk on the embankment, Liu Liang-li (劉良力), an activist from the Black-faced Spoonbill Conservation Society in Tainan County (台南縣黑面琵鷺保育學會), was trying to tell her group of rambunctious fourth-graders from the Lantan primary school (蘭潭國小) in Chiayi County about the habits of the birds.

  "Being a nocturnal animal, black-faced spoonbills sleep during the day," Liu told the children.

  "Children and adults can both learn how to interact with nature and respect others through joining watching-bird activities," Liu told the Taipei Times.

  In addition to the Wild Bird Society and the Black-faced Spoonbill Conservation Society, other overseas and local groups have worked on the black-faced spoonbill issue.

  Jane Goodall, the well-known animal conservationist, came out against the Pinnan project last month and she was joined by other foreign groups including SAVE International (Spoonbill Action Voluntary Echo) and the University of California at Berkeley.

  "The black-faced spoonbill will definitely be gone once the Chiku wetland has been damaged by the development. We are now calling for the protection of the wetland because similar situations exists elsewhere on the island," said Li Wen-chen (李文珍), a representative from the union.

  "We want people to look at the bigger picture. The protection of the wetland is not only confined to the well-being of the waterfowl that winter there," Li said.

  However, some environmentalists say that the passage of the environmental assessment for the Pinnan project has simply been a straight-forward matter of sacrificing the bird for political gains.

  "Considering the sensitive timing, it seems to be clear that the passage of the environmental assessment was a tool used by the KMT in exchange for local support in the upcoming presidential election," said Huang from the Wild Bird Society.

  Like some local residents at Chiku, Huang doubts the Pinnan project will bring the benefits its sponsors promote.

  "We local residents can do nothing but accept the fact," Huang said.
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