The Ocean Affairs Council yesterday unveiled the first three marine areas in Taiwan that have been certified under the “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECM), showing that economic development can coexist with ecological conservation.
The three areas include the undeveloped zone of CPC Corp, Taiwan’s Guantang liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Taoyuan, Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) offshore wind farm in Changhua County, and TCC Group Holdings Co’s Ho Ping Industrial Harbor in Hualien County.
Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said Taiwan has become one of the few countries that have OECM written into law.
Photo: Screengrab from an Ocean Conservation Administration video
The nation certified the three marine OECMs after its Marine Conservation Act (海洋保育法) took effect in July last year, she said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said the OECM mechanism shows that economic development and ecological conservation are not mutually exclusive.
Ocean Conservation Administration Director-General Lu Hsiao-yun (陸曉筠) said marine OECMs are not established as marine protected areas, but require effective, long-term efforts by marine users to conserve marine biodiversity.
There are only 229 marine OECMs worldwide, Lu said, adding that marine life also needs ecological corridors to link their habitats.
Marine OECMs are expected to form such a network of ocean corridors and must undergo effectiveness evaluation every three to five years, she said.
CPC representative Chang Shih-chun (張世駿) said the Guantang LNG terminal’s undeveloped zone has an intertidal zone conserved jointly by the company and local marine biologists.
It has become a habitat for small terns and an algal reef ecosystem, he said, adding that a public trust fund has been set up to aid the conservation efforts.
TCC representative Chuang Wen-cheng (莊文成) said the harbor was the only one in Taiwan built via the inner excavation method.
The method helped to minimize coastal degradation and shape the site into an “ecological harbor” where giant clams dwell and 1,001 coral colonies have been restored, he said.
Taipower representative Wu Cheng-hung (吳政宏) said the company’s phase-one offshore wind project has underwater structures that function similarly to artificial fish reefs.
Such reefs helped increase the abundance of local fishery resources by 50 percent, including forage fish that nearby Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins feed on, he said.
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