The 40km-long Lijia forest road that meanders through the Lijia wildlife habitat in Beinan Village (卑南), Taitung County, is a lengthy track that used to be home to numerous giant trees. Now, there remains just a single camphor tree, more than 1,000 years old — the result of years of illegal logging.
Lin Ken-yi (林肯毅), 53, a Beinan Aborigine, has long been saddened by the destruction of the natural environment in the area where he grew up, prompting him to return to the mountain a few years ago in an effort to stop illegal logging and deforestation.
Driving a car along the narrow zigzagging mountain roads, Lin, head of a self-organized watch group called the Forest Watch Team, stops a van he encounters and questions the driver.
Photo: CNA
Asked by Lin why he is heading up the mountain, the driver claimed that he was looking for edible wild herbs, but Lin’s instincts tell him otherwise.
Lin writes down the license plate number of the vehicle and notifies the police without informing the driver, who realized he had been found out and quickly fled the scene.
“A great many huge trees used to stand here,” Lin said, recollecting his childhood. “Their trunks were so thick it took as many as four adults holding hands to go all the way round the tree.”
However, following years of illegal logging and natural disasters, Lin said almost all the tallest trees have vanished. The stream that used to flow through his village has also dried up.
A patrol team, made up of individuals from the Taitung Forest District Office, the Lijia Watch Team and the Forest Watch Team, drives along the Lijia forest track to a mountain site located about 1,000m above sea level.
The first thing visitors see is a camphor tree that Lin said is more than 1,000 years old. The tree is 40m tall and has a circumference of 20m.
Visitors are usually amazed to see that a huge door has been carved straight through the trunk of this ancient tree.
“Illegal loggers have vowed to topple this tree within a year, but as long as I am alive this tree will continue to stand,” Lin said.
To better shield the ancient tree, Lin has installed a patrol box nearby and inspects the area up to four times a week.
“If we fail to protect it, then such trees could disappear forever,” he said.
Every time he clocks in at the patrol box, the sight of the damage done to the tree reminds him of how important it is to fight illegal loggers, Lin said.
He has sworn to protect the only forest in the area, so that future generations can experience the power and wonder of nature the forest represents
“Forests are an integral part of Aboriginal life,” said Lin, who doubles as Lijia Community Development Association chairman, adding that he appealed for volunteers last year to join the Forest Watch Team.
More than 30 tribal residents joined the team soon after, including women, elders and Lin’s wife and son, all having been moved by Lin’s dedication to the cause.
One team member, identified as A-hsiang (阿香), said that without Lin’s drive and determination, the team — which was elected model watch team of the year — would have disbanded long ago.
Former association chairman Wu Hsien-yi (吳賢一) said Lin often risked his life to defend the forest, citing one occasion when Lin crept through mud in a torrential downpour for more than 100m, just to ambush illegal loggers and arrest them.
As a son of the forest, Wu said he was under no illusion that the forest could ever be restored to its former glory, but did believe it could be saved from further damage, adding that he would do whatever it takes to safeguard the forest for future generations to enjoy.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS