The Forestry Bureau is increasing support to farmers of bamboo shoots to protect an endangered tree frog endemic to Taiwan from the loss of its pristine bamboo garden habitat, Chiayi Forest District Office Deputy Director Lee Ting-chung (李定忠) has said.
The bureau believes that giving a green conservation label to Oldham bamboo shoots — a delicacy in many Asian cuisines — would help farmers maintain the bamboo groves where tree frogs live, Lee said.
Known as the farmland green tree frog (Rhacophorus arvalis), the endemic amphibian lives mainly in bamboo forests and fruit gardens, and only breeds in unpolluted environments with limited exposure to sunlight, rich soil, access to water and little human activity, the Chiayi office said.
Photo courtesy of the Forestry Bureau Chiayi Forest District Office via CNA
In Taiwan, the frog is only found in Yunlin County, Chiayi city and county, and Tainan.
In Chiayi, it lives in bamboo groves that also serve as the main farming grounds for Oldham bamboo shoots.
In the past few years, demand for Oldham bamboo shoots has fallen significantly, driving prices down and leading some bamboo grove owners to convert their land into pineapple fields to boost their incomes, Lee said.
That has shrunk the natural habitat of the frog, which is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and classified as a protected species in Taiwan.
In the past, the bureau has tried to use subsidies to incentivize bamboo shoot farming to maintain the habitat, but had little success.
It also considered designating areas where the frog lives as wildlife conservation zones, but that was impractical, as the amphibian’s habitat spans a sizable rural area dotted with farms and villages, Lee said.
With the conservation label, the office is also seeking to promote the crop and increase its market value, Lee said.
The label would highlight the pesticide-free, eco-friendly ways in which the bamboo shoots are grown and how the groves serve as habitats for the farmland green tree frog, hopefully making the food more popular among food industry professionals and consumers, Lee said.
The new strategy was devised late last year in cooperation with an ecosystem consulting company, he said, that the project started in 2018, culminating in the formal launch of the label, likely later this year.
The bureau and the consultancy are seeking to develop a program dedicated to maintaining bamboo shoot farming and the tree frog’s habitat, Lee said.
The program encourages farmers to nurture “toxic-free gardens” that are suitable as frog habitats, he said.
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