26 August 2006
By Robin J. Winkler
I visited the National Science Council's exhibition at the Chiang Kaishek Memorial today setting off a chain of ideas:
Taiwan has a diversity of plants, animals, habitats and other “beings” unmatched by all but a few countries or regions of comparable size in the world;
There is a huge and rapidly growing global interest in “environmental” matters as more people understand the connection between physical environments, species diversity and the true significance of sustainability, i.e., satisfying needs of the present without sacrificing the future's ability to satisfy its needs;
Taiwan could easily capture the attention, imagination, and support of this global community by taking firm, determined and aggressive measures to protect, conserve and restore our nation’s natural environment. These measures are bold because they will necessarily
include confrontations with powerful political and business interests promoting trade with China and the rest of the world, liberalization of labor imports, increasing the per capita income through initiatives such as fast-buck tourism gimmicks, growth of GDP, and major investments in science parks, steel plants, highways, airport metros and the like. As a “pilot project” for this “ecological diplomacy” initiative I propose that individuals, businesses, NGOs and government officials join together to create an international ecological park located in the area in and around Yunlin County which is currently slated to be turned into a reservoir.
Many groups in Taiwan have been working to stop the construction of the Hushan Dam through protests, lobbying, legal and administrative means. While our efforts are adding significant costs to the construction project itself, they are a major drain on the limited resources of Taiwan environmental groups. Nevertheless, these groups feel the investment of social costs is worthwhile to educate people on the need to preserve limited habitat for the present and future generations of people, plants, animals and all others.
Through our website
www.wildatheart.org.tw we have been asking people around the world to write to political leaders in Taiwan urging them to stop the project.
President Chen will soon be joining a meeting of Pacific nations to discuss “development” issues of common concern. Think of how the local and international press might respond if he asked the nations attending the meeting to follow Taiwan’s example of enacting the principles of sustainability into law (see Taiwan’s Basic Environment Act of December 2002, articles 2, 3, 7 and 8), and then announced that he would dedicate his remaining time in office to ensuring that the mandate of this law was understood and adhered to by every government agency, business and individual in Taiwan.
Who needs WTO, who needs the United Nations – we have everything we need right here at home. Take care of our natural environment, our oceans, forests, rivers and diversity, and I guarantee that the financial, political, economic and social stability necessary to ensure sustainability will follow.