The introduction of the Satoyama Initiative to Kaohsiung’s Meinong District (美濃) has seen incredible success and proved that a win-win situation is achievable in terms of agricultural production while protecting the environment, Kaohsiung Bureau of Agriculture officials said.
“Satoyama” is a Japanese term applied to a border zone or area between mountain foothills and arable flat land and can be defined as an entire landscape used for agriculture, containing a mosaic of mixed forests, rice paddy fields, dry rice fields, grasslands and various bodies of water.
Meinong has long been a key agricultural production area in the region, while offering Kaohsiung residents the beautiful scenery of rural villages, farmland and rivers.
Photo: Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times
Bureau officials said Meinong residents voted to implement the Satoyama Iniative and that the bureau is conducting a biodiversity inspection in the Meinong area — the first of its kind in the nation.
Officials said the inspection is expected to take six to 12 months to complete, adding that it is concentrating its efforts on the district’s rice paddies, wild lotus and mixed grains.
Although only two months into the general inspection, bureau officials said they have already discovered the presence of painted snipe, a creature listed as a class-two protected species, adding that the rice paddies are also home to the rarely seen Onychothemis testacea tonkinensis, a species of dragonfly that usually makes its home midstream or downstream in clean rivers.
Officials said they also found another class-two protected species, the black-winged kite, and a class-three protected species, the Oriental pratincole, in the cornfields, with the former hunting Arvicolinae for food and the latter feeding off insects.
Of note is the change in focus of the inspection area, which is usually centered on woodlands, the bureau said, adding that most of the newly discovered animals had appeared in fields, which helps to analyze in greater detail types of produce grown and fields that adopt organic farming.
There is evidence to suggest that eco-friendly farming is safest, both for the produce grown and for the ecology, the bureau said, adding that it has contributed to creating environmentally friendly farming.
“The bureau plans to produce data on the habitats of animals in the changing landscape around Meinong’s farms,” bureau official Lin Chih-hsien (林志嫺) said.
The bureau also plans to publish a book examining how the district has successfully combined ecological conservation with agricultural activity, Lin added.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS