Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County has been designated as the nation’s first international dark sky park by the International Dark-Sky Association thanks to its efforts to protect its nighttime environment.
Dark sky parks are spaces protected for natural conservation that implement good outdoor lighting and provide dark sky programs for visitors, the association said.
The certification is “a model case of cooperation between the local civilian community and governmental entities,” association executive director Ruskin Hartley said in a statement.
Photo courtesy of the Taitung County Government
The nonprofit group Taiwan Dark Sky Protection Alliance in 2014 started campaigning for the establishment of the park. It was eventually able to convince the Nantou County Government to pursue the idea and secured cooperation from Taroko National Park and the Forestry Bureau to help create the necessary conditions for a dark sky park bid.
Nantou County and four other parties sent a formal proposal to the association last year, and it was approved on Sunday by e-mail.
The Taipei Amateur Astronomers Association was happy about the decision, saying that the certificate was the product of nearly four years’ effort by the astronomy community and Hehuanshan’s tourism authorities.
The Cing Jing Tourism Association said that the dark sky certification is only the beginning of a larger local initiative to reduce light pollution while building up infrastructure and furnishing more guides for visitors to the area.
In related news, Booking.com yesterday named Taitung County’s Chenggong (成功) and Taimali (太麻里) townships among the top five stargazing destinations in Taiwan, citing users’ data collected by its Web site.
The county government in a statement said that it has since last year been working to promote the county’s night sky as a tourist attraction.
The Taitung Starry Night Concert is to take place at Guanshan Waterfront Park (關山) on Aug. 24 and at the Kararuan Recreational Area (加路蘭遊憩區) on Aug. 31, it said, adding that it has planned a total of seven nighttime concerts and trained tour guides for 72 other events that are being held this year.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS