As one of Asia’s little dragons; Taiwan’s tends to be associated with computers, gadgets and electronic wares. And yes, this is very much what Taiwan is about. Taiwan wouldn’t even enter the heads of most folks looking to see some of the East Asian region’s natural wonders as a 'must see' travel destination. And that is really sad and just goes to show how little most people know about this little natural wonderland straddling the Tropic of Cancer on the East Asian Pacific Rim.
Taiwan, which covers an area of 36,000 square kilometers, may be small (0.025 percent of the total land on earth) but it showcase’s the entire range of climates from tropical to subarctic. This gives rise to an amazingly high level of biodiversity that few places on earth can match.
Rising from tropical beaches to the highest mountains in East Asia (3952m, with over 200 peaks higher than 3000m), Taiwan is in many ways a living laboratory housing samples of almost all of Asia’s ecosystems.
"Small but incredibly diverse and beautiful" would aptly describe Taiwan’s natural environment. Taiwan boasts over 46, 360 described species of flora and fauna. Ten percent of the world’s marine species are found in the waters around Taiwan. 4,200 species of vascular plants grow in Taiwan which includes a staggering 700 species of ferns.
Taiwan has a very high level of endemism: 25 percent of Taiwan’s 4,200 species of vascular plants; 30 percent of 70 mammal species; 12 percent of 150 freshwater fish species; 60 percent of the 20,000 insect species which includes more than 400 butterfly species; 31 percent of amphibians; and 22 percent of reptiles. Of the more than 605 bird species recorded on Taiwan’s bird list 24 are endemic and found nowhere else. More than 60 are endemic subspecies with several likely to be raised to full endemic species after more scientific evaluation.
Taiwan also occupies a prominent position on the East Asian Flyway. The autumn raptor migration through Taiwan’s southern tip is amongst the world’s twenty largest, with figures as high as 50,000 raptors from 26 diurnal raptor species being recorded in a single day at the climax of the fall migration period.
Taiwan has a total of 53 IBAs or Important Bird Areas. For its size, Taiwan has a very high number of IBAs. Only 11 or 21% fall within totally protected areas. 17 IBAs or 32% fall within partially protected areas. That leaves 25 or 47% of Taiwan’s IBAs without any protection.
Taiwan’s economic growth came at a great cost to Taiwan’s fragile environment. Much of natural Taiwan disappeared in clouds of pollution and storms of development but there are still natural areas left and these areas desperately need protection.
Because of Taiwan’s small land area, the impact of over exploitation of its natural resources all too often is catastrophic. Exploitation of Taiwan’s forests by the camphor and timber industries destroyed much of the island’s old growth forests; especially at lower to mid altitudes. The uncontrolled hunting of the Formosan sika deer lead to its near extinction by the early part of the twentieth century. This, coupled with post World War II development resulting in the destruction of remaining sika habitat, pushed the species over the brink and by the late 1960s the species became extinct in the wild. Today, a small token population of this once abundant species has been reintroduced to Kenting National Park using “wild turned” domestic stock. Taiwan’s Clouded Leopards haven’t been seen for years and are almost certainly now extinct.
Whaling in the waters around Taiwan resulted in the extermination of the population of humpback whales that once wintered in the waters off southern Taiwan. Now, sightings of large whales in the waters around Taiwan are extremely rare but whaling records show that humpback, sperm, fin, blue, and sei whales were all taken in these waters during the twentieth century.
It is also known that the dugong was found off the west coast before development destroyed its seagrass habitat. Today, a unique Taiwan population of fewer than a hundred Taiwan pink dolphins looks likely to follow their recently extinct Yangtze River dolphin cousins over the edge unless something drastic is done to save them. Despite their IUCN Red List status as Critically Endangered and their desperately small population size, the Taiwan Government seems willing to deal the death blow through further development of heavy industry along the west coast fueled by water from the controversial Hushan Dam project.
So what is being done? Local NGOs, like us at Wild are raising awareness and are challenging the authorities over environmental issues. But resources are limited and with very little, if any, international support, too often, in the game where the best presentation takes the prize, all to often we're no match for the heavy industry road-show in an EPA that still suffers from the legacy of having been a rubberstamp body of a totalitarian regime. But we're working to change all that!
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