Thousands of signs giving directions and marking locations have been added in Taiwan’s forests and mountains, while mobile network coverage has been bolstered, due to the growing number of accidents involving hikers over the past few years, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said on Thursday.
The number of accidents involving hikers has been increasing since the government eased restrictions on access to more than 80 forestry roads previously only used for logging and by people living in mountainous areas.
The access restrictions to the mountainous and forested areas in Taiwan were eased in late 2019, and applications for entry permits were streamlined so that they can be done through an online portal.
Photo: Screen grab from the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Web site
Data compiled by the National Fire Agency showed the annual number of accidents in mountainous areas that required rescue services more than doubled from 207 in 2019 to 454 in 2020, and reached 513 in 2023.
Getting lost or injured are the two most common types of accidents, the agency said adding that 3,420 signs offering directions had been placed as of January.
The signs are yellow and diamond-shaped, showing coordinates in the World Geodetic System 1984 and Taiwan’s TWD97 system, the agency said.
The signs also show the name of the path or trail, and key locations along the way, in Chinese, along with two numbers — the total distance and a distance marker — in kilometers.
The signs are placed every 100m, the agency said.
Meanwhile, 1,381 signs, which are also yellow, had been placed at locations where mobile network coverage is available in mountainous areas and forests, as of February, it said.
The signs are placed by the three telecoms in Taiwan, whose staff check to ensure there is reception in remote areas, it said.
The 1,381 signs can be found in the 19 forestry recreation areas, and along trails and tracks maintained by the agency in charge of affairs involving forests, which cover about 60 percent of the land in Taiwan.
Telecom companies also work with national park headquarters and have put in place signs indicating mobile service coverage in areas such as Taroko National Park in Hualien County or on Yushan in central Taiwan, an agency official said.
The agency also advised visitors to download maps from the government portal (https://data.gov.tw/en/) or Rudy Map, created with the free and open map database MOI.
OSM-Taiwan TOPO, which has the same information shown by the signs, can be used offline, it said.
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