The Yushan National Park Administration Office plans to create a black bear conservation center in eastern Taiwan.
National Park Service Director-General Chen Mao-chun (陳茂春) made the announcement at a plaque unveiling ceremony on Tuesday, marking the office’s transition to the newly minted National Park Service.
Formerly part of the Ministry of the Interior’s (MOI) Construction and Planning Agency, the office was restructured to become a subordinate agency of the National Park Service.
Photo courtesy of the Yushan National Park Administration Office
The re-flagged Yushan National Park Administration Office would receive a boost in resources and funding to support upgrading park facilities and cofounding a biodiversity surveillance platform for the park area with other agencies, Chen said.
The office’s mission also includes a push to enhance its relationship with indigenous communities in its jurisdiction and advising private businesses on reducing their carbon footprint, he said.
Taiwan’s national parks are each to focus their conservation and research capabilities on one local species, with Yushan National Park being responsible for Formosan black bears, he said.
It is home to the fragile high-altitude ecosystem of the Central Mountain Range that can be utilized as a gauge of climate change’s effects on the environment, Yushan National Park Administration Office director Lu Shu-fei (盧淑妃) said.
The office is to emphasize the preservation and study of the native black bear population, as the species’ health can be an indicator of the robustness of the park’s environmental conditions, she said.
Park officials are to continue monitoring the black bears and promote the peaceful coexistence of ursines and humans as it had in the past two decades, Lu said, adding that de-trapping, conflict mitigation and combating poaching remain the office’s priorities.
The Yushan National Park has joined forces with other national parks in high-altitude regions of the Central Mountain Range to establish a national plan for the research and conservation of Formosan black bears, she said.
A bear conservation education center is also to be created under the park management office’s authority in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪), she added.
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