Cambridge University Press, School of Oriental and African Studies The China Quarterly

Taiwan's Environment Today
Author(s): Richard Louis Edmonds

Source: The China Quarterly, No. 148, Special Issue: Contemporary Taiwan (Dec., 1996), pp.
1224-1259
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the School of Oriental and African
Studies
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Taiwan's Environment Today*
Richard Louis Edmonds
The story of the post-1950 Taiwan economic miracle has been told man
times. Quite a few authors have also dealt with aspects of the enviro
mental degradation which has accompanied this growth.' In general th
literature places the blame on Taiwan society as a whole. It is critical
the government's slow evolution of regard for environmental protection,
industry's lack of effort to assume its responsibilities and a lack of
individual citizen concern prior to the 1980s. It is true that Taiwan
economy has grown rapidly since the 1960s. Unfortunately, this grow
was linked to a low environmental consciousness and the lack of political
will to regulate land use and pollution abatement. It was rooted i
plastics, petrochemicals, leather goods, pesticides and other high pollu
ing industries. These industries were attracted to Taiwan in part becau
of the environmental consciousness growing in the island's major mar
kets, the United States and Japan.2 Sectors of the government favour
heavy industry as it would help with any efforts for a counter-attac
against the Communists on the mainland. Social awareness of environ
mental issues and discontent with government and corporate management
only began to grow in the 1980s and the government has yet to come to
grips fully with the problem of environmental degradation. The purpose
*I should like to express my thanks to Juju C. S. Wang (Ts'inghua University), Zhou Ju

(Taiwan Normal University) and Liang Yung-fang (Environmental Protection Administra-
tion, Republic of China) for their support by supplying valuable literature and to the Taiw
Environmental Protection Union (Taiwan huanjing baohu lianmeng) for supplying a full s
of their journal Taiwan huanjing (Taiwan Environment).
1. Key and recent studies in English include: Taiwan 2000 Study Steering Committe
(eds.), Taiwan 2000: Balancing Economic Growth and Environmental Protection (Taipe
The Steering Committee Taiwan 2000 Study, 1989). Jack K. Williams, "Environmentalis
in Taiwan," in D. F. Simon and M. Y. M. Kau (eds.), Taiwan: Beyond the Economic Mirac
(Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1992), pp. 187-210. Linda Gail Arrigo, "The environment
nightmare of the economic miracle: land abuse and land struggles in Taiwan," Bulletin
Concerned Asian Scholars, Vol. 26, Nos. 1-2 (1994), pp. 21-44. Ouyang Chiao-hu
"Sustainable development and our living environment," in Jason C. Hu (ed.), Qui
Revolutions on Taiwan, Republic of China (Taipei: Kwang Hua, 1995), pp. 186-211.
Japanese see: Tenao Tadayoshi, "Taiwan: sanyo kogai no seiji keizaigaku" ("Taiwan: the
political economics of enterprise pollution"), in Kojima Reeitsu and Fujisaki Shigeaki (eds.
Kaihatsu to kankyo: Higashi Ajia no keiken (Development and the Environment: The EastAs
Experience) (Tokyo: Ajia keizai kenkyujo, 1993), pp. 139-199. In Chinese there is muc
more. Some recent works include: You Ch'ing (ed.), Kua shiji Taiwan: shanchuan, haia
senlin yu shuiziyuan (Taiwan into the Next Century: Mountain and Rivers, Coastal, Fores
and Water Resources) (Taipei: Xin Taiwan fazhan wenjiao jijinhui (New Taiwan
Development Foundation), 1995); Cheng Hsien-you (ed.), Taiwan shengming de xinshen
(Taiwan's Call for Life) (Taipei: Qianwei chubanshe, 1995); and Lin I-chen, Taiwan
yongxufazhan (Taiwan's Sustainable Development) (Taipei: Qianwei chubanshe, 1993.
2. Thomas J. Bierma, "A personal look at Taiwan's air pollution problems," Illino
Geographical Society Bulletin, Vol. 27, No. 2 (1985), pp. 18-20 points out an interestin
example of how Taiwan was willing to trade off air quality for profit. After the United State
government curtailed the burning of old electrical cables because of the toxic pollutan
released when the insulation burned, American companies interested in recovering the meta
from the cables found people in Taiwan willing to undertake the work despite the air pollution
? The China Quarterly, 1996
Taiwan's Environment Today 1225
of this article is to describe the current state of Taiwan's environment, to

trace the development of environmental movements on the island and to
assess government's capability to salvage the situation.
The State of the Environment
Rapid economic development has put a tremendous strain on Taiwan's

resource base, and the most clear symptoms have been water and energy
shortages.3 The impact of pollution in Taiwan has also been obvious and
requires careful land use planning.
The key environmental issues in Hong Kong or Macau are housing and
green zones.4 In Taiwan, these are also key issues because of land
shortages for urban development.5 However, the basis for environmental
concern in Taiwan is perhaps better defined by the wider term of land use
problems. This is mainly because the abuse of land use zoning, while
present in Hong Kong and very notable in Macau, is so widespread in
Taiwan as to be an ubiquitous urban and rural problem.
Deforestation and Land Shortages
Land shortages in Taiwan are critical. Taiwan's industrialists complain

that land scarcity, along with increased enforcement of environmental
protection and rising wages, are driving them to relocate offshore. The
government was late in organizing comprehensive forestry and agricul-
tural programmes, with the result that large areas which should have
remained forested were converted to other uses.6 In Taiwan it will be
necessary for the government to rezone up to 3,000 hectares of agricul-
tural land for construction of low-cost housing between 1992 and 1997.7
The Nationalist (Kuomintang) government recently established a prin-
ciple of renting but no longer selling public land. However, it will take
some time for the populace to gain confidence that this regulation will be
strictly enforced.
3. As of May 1991, for example, the central government was studying ways to implement
electricity cuts on a rotating basis.
4. For typical examples of the importance of housing related environmental issues for
Hong Kong see Cecilia Chan and Peter Hills, Limited Gains: Glassroots Mobilization and
the Environment in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental
Management, University of Hong Kong, 1993), and the desire to preserve green spaces, flora
and fauna in Macau see Isabel Meneses, "A procura do verde perdido," Macau, II Serie, No.
36 (April 1995), pp. 89-95.
5. Although not directly stated the case for this reasoning is made in Arrigo, "The
environmental nightmare of the economic miracle."
6. Criticism of the lack of forestry and agricultural policy is still being made by academics
in Taiwan. See Ch'en Hsin-hsiung. "Topo kunjing kaichuang linye di 2 ge huangjin shidai
zai huanbao yishi gaozhang,..." ("Break through the difficulties and start forestry's second
golden era as environmental consciousness is raised, under drought and flood pressure, the
direction in which forestry should strive in the future"), in You Ch'ing, Kua shiji Taiwan, pp.
6-7.
7. "Bufen nongdi jiangyu biangeng" ("Some agricultural land is going to change"),
Zhongyang ribao (Central Daily News International Edition), No. 22755, 4 February 1991,
p. 7.
1226 The China Quarterly
There were substantial drops in the total area of broadleaf forest,

grassland and paddy, and substantial rises in the amount of dry crop land,
water area, mixed forest area, and urban and industrial land between the
mid-1950s and the 1980s. Prices for timber have continued to drop in the
1990s and private foresters who on average manage only 1.3 hectares find
it impossible to operate, especially with increasing mechanization costs
and rural labour shortages. As a result many forested areas are now
planted in betel-nut trees, which do not hold the soil as well as natural
vegetation and require considerable amounts of water, or the areas have
been used to grow vegetables. While widespread natural forest cover in
the upper reaches of river catchments does not eliminate the threat of
floods and drought nor stop soil erosion, it would ameliorate these
problems, and calls for stricter control over land use in river catchments
by foresters in Taiwan are common. The decrease in paddy in recent
years has not been offset by the increase in dry crop land, as much of the
best paddy went into urban and industrial uses whereas the new dry crop
lands tend to be on slopes at higher elevations.
Wetland Conservation
The race for new land upon which to build has led to serious
encroachment upon wetlands. This point was highlighted at the First
National Non-Governmental Ecological Conservation Conference held in
1995 which put forward a petition to the government to consider sustain-
able development in its future land use plans. At the conference, reports
showed that the five major wetland areas in Taiwan (Kuantu, Taipei;
K'oya River mouth, Hsinchu; Tatu River mouth, Changhua; Aoku,
Chia-i; and Ch'iku, T'ainan) are all under threat from pollution.8 Al-
though Kuantu has been scheduled to become part of a nature park since
1987, the Taipei government had not begun to purchase the land for the
nature park as of 1995. Dumping of soil at the site, the inflow of domestic
waste water and littering over the past two decades has damaged its
ecosystem. K'oya is a designated site for some future government
development plans while Aoku and Ch'iku are designated to become
industrial districts. Although the largest wetland in Taiwan at the mouth
of the Tatu River is already in part a water fowl protection district,
another portion is due to become a rubbish tip. The wetland site is
surrounded by industrial parks and a thermal power plant. There is
already evidence of marine life dying and birds with high levels of
pollutants in their bodies, which suggests that even if strict conservation
is put into effect it will be decades before the ecosystem begins to
approach its former state.
Soil Erosion
It is said that over 1,000 square kilometres of Taiwan's area suffers
8. "Taiwan 5 da shidi mianlin wuran pohuai weiji" ("Taiwan's five largest wetlands are
facing a pollution destruction crisis"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 24420, 28 August 1995, p. 7.
from soil erosion.9 As already noted, forest lands in river catchments have
been logged, converted to agriculture, housing, industrial, mining and
more recently recreational sites - often on steep slopes.'0 There has also
been considerable quarrying and construction in the river bed areas. The
land surface of Taiwan shows the scars of heavy exploitation over the last
30 years. Soil erosion and siltation of reservoirs has been one result.
Taiwan's slopes are prone to landslides and mud flows. Disasters have
been common in the past." Steep mountain terrain, loose soil types, and
the intense seasonal rain and earthquakes all contribute to the erosion
problem. It is, however, human activities such as excessive mining,
upland farming, road construction and creation of new settlements that
have sped up the pace of soil erosion.12 Erosion in the Taipei basin has
become so serious in recent years that in 1991 the Taipei Municipal
Government organized "Soil Conservation Patrols" to stop construction
and cultivation on marginal land with steep slopes.'3 When successive
typhoons came on land in 1994, the layers of silt accompanying
the floods demonstrated that the need to control erosion has a long way
to go.
Apart from the direct impact of soil loss upon agriculture, siltation of
reservoirs has had serious implications for water resources. The Mingte
Reservoir in Miaoli county was completed in 1970 with an expected life
of more than 50 years. By 1991, it was already 20 per cent full of silt as
a result of improper forestry, agriculture, mining and road construction
practices. At that time it was estimated that it would take the Miaoli
Agricultural Hydrology Council four years to pump out 150,000 cubic
metres of silt in order to extend the reservoir's life.14 Current loss of
9. Chiang Chung-ming "Quanqiu queshui guojia Taiwan paiming shiba" ("Of the world's
polities lacking water, Taiwan is ranked 18th"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 24317, 17 May 1995,
p. 7.
10. You Fan-chie, "Jishuiqu shuitubaochi wenti yu gaijin zhi dao" ("The way to improve
soil conservation problems in catchment areas"), in You Ch'ing, Kua shiji Taiwan, p. 56
points out that in the early 1990s there were nearly 6,000 hectares of golf courses and 927
mines operating in Taiwan.
11. You Fan-chie, "Jishuiqu shuitubaochi wenti," pp. 51-52 points how serious landslides
can be in Taiwan once the surface is disturbed above the fragmented shale on hills. In 1989,
there were 2,535 landslides in Taiwan covering 8,100 hectares. There also have been serious
siltation problems in the Paiho, Akungtien and Wushant'ou Reservoirs of southern Taiwan
because that area is prone to mud flows under heavy precipitation.
12. Rapid road construction during the last three decades means that only some of the
highest mountain areas in the east central parts of Taiwan now remain undisturbed by human
activity.
13. "Jianju wei shuitubaochi xunfangdui cuisheng" ("Construction Bureau creates a patrol
for soil conservation"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22742, 22 January 1991, p. 7.
14. Huang Pi-hsia "Mingde Shuiku shiyong shouming liang hongdeng" ("Mingte
Reservoir life gives out a red light warning"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22761, 10 February 1991,
p. 7. As another example, Hu Jo-mei, "Jishuiqu lancai riyi xiaozhang" ("Reckless digging in
the catchment district grows day by day"), Lianhe bao (United Daily News Taoyuan Edition),
26 November 1995, p. 13 points out that the Shihmen Reservoir's bottom level rose 39.5
metres between 1964 and 1984 due to siltation. To take advantage of a bad situation the
government has allowed construction companies to dig out gravels from the Shihmen
catchment presumably to slow erosion. However, some suggest that this has caused pollution
in the catchment.
Table 1: Annual Per Capita Precipitation Available for Water Supply

(cubic metres)
Polity Per capita cubic metres available
Brazil 124,000
United States of America 29,370
Spain 7,885
Nippon 6,000
China mainland 5,833
Italy 4,821
Taiwan 4,518
Source:
Yang Cheng-ch'uan, "Pinglun 1" ("Commentary 1"), in You Ch'ing (ed.),
Kua shiji Taiwan: shanchuan, haian, senlin yu shuiziyuan (Taiwan into the
Next Century: Mountain and Rivers, Coastal, Forest and Water Resources)
(Taipei: Xin Taiwan fazhan wenjiao jijinhui (New Taiwan Development
Foundation), 1995), pp. 22-23.
reservoir volume through siltation is quite serious with roughly the

capacity of the Mingte Reservoir being lost annually."
Water Resources
A 1995 report presented by the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of

Economic Affairs made the point that out of 149 comparable polities in
the world, Taiwan was ranked 18th in terms of water shortage. Further-
more, a 1994 United Nations survey on water resources indicates that
Taiwan is second only to Libya in the overuse of ground water.16 As
Table 1 suggests, population density plays a major part in this problem.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs report made this point when it noted
that Taiwan could annually supply each person with a level of water
which was below the limit at which a country was classified as water
short.
One would think that with average annual levels of precipitation
around 2,510 mm - two-and-a-half times the world average - Taiwan
should not have a water shortage problem despite population pressure. In
reality only about 600 mm can be used, with the other 1,900 mm
evaporating or flowing out to the ocean." This loss results from both
natural and human-induced conditions. Taiwan has rugged terrain with
high peaks in the centre. About 53 per cent of the island's surface has
15. Chiang Chung-ming, "Quanqiu queshui guojia Taiwan paiming shiba," p. 7 estimates
that Taiwan's annual reservoir capacity loss is roughly between 12 million and 14.6 million
cubic metres. Winnie Chang, "Dwindling reserves," Free China Review, Vol. 44, No. 7 (July
1994), p. 37 puts the loss of reservoir capacity due to siltation at 14.7 cubic metres per year
and states that Taiwan's reservoirs have lost close to one-quarter of reservoir capacity since
construction.
16. Chiang Chung-ming, "Quanqiu queshui guojia Taiwan paiming shiba," p. 7. Jim
Hwang, "Water: resource in crisis," Free China Review Vol. 44, No. 7 (July 1994), p. 7.
17. According to Yang Cheng-ch'uan, "Pinglun 1" ("Commentary 1"), in You Ch'ing, Kua
shiji Taiwan, p. 23, about 75% of Taiwan's precipitation becomes surface run-off, 21%
evaporates, and 4% enters the earth to become ground water.
slopes of over 21 degrees. The elongated, narrow shape of the island with
its central mountain range means that the rivers are all short rapid-flowing
streams carrying water swiftly over boulder-strewn flood plains. Precipi-
tation is highly seasonal with severe shortages often occurring during the
winter months. Approximately 78 per cent of Taiwan's precipitation falls
between May and October and there are geographical differences in
concentration, with 90 per cent of the annual rainfall of the south-western
portion of the island coming in the rainy season, compared with only 62
per cent in the north-west, 78 per cent in the west-centre and 79 per cent
in the east. Shortages are very severe in years when there is little rainfall
from May to July. Taiwan has even experienced creation of sandy
landscapes or desertization in recent years, particularly along the west
coast. 18
Lack of public awareness on how to conserve a recreational environ-

ment and accusations of mismanagement and poor planning are also
responsible for water shortages. For example, the government has al-
lowed construction of an excessive number of golf courses which has
wasted both water and land. Non-porous, poor quality roads have sped up
water run-off, reducing the amount of water stored in the ground. Neglect
of agriculture by the government and desire for profits by farmers have
not always favoured the planting of water saving crops. The increase of
betel-nut planting on slopes in southern and central Taiwan has caused
soil erosion and more rapid water run-off leading to flooding in rainy
weather. The betel-nut tree's high demand for water has also increased
water shortages in dry times.19
In 1991, water resources became strained as the island experienced the
greatest water shortage in over 15 years. Taiwan's 40 reservoirs were
low, well-drilling companies experienced a boom and shrimp farms in the
south lost about 80 per cent of their fry because of a lack of clean water.
In May of that year the Republic of China air force tried cloud seeding
to help increase rainfall while the water companies were encouraging
frugality amongst their customers.20 After a dry 1992 there was another
serious drought in 1993 as rains from May to July were the lowest in 40
years. Water use was rationed or reduced throughout Taiwan from
mid-summer and water had to be shipped to certain parts of the island.
The situation in 1993 caused concern both in the government and
amongst environmental groups. One result of this reaction was the
passing of the Soil and Water Conservation Law in May 1994. After the
first nine months of 1995 yielded only 54.33 per cent of the normal
amount of precipitation, the Taiwan provincial government decided that
18. "Sankou Helanjing maimo shaqiuxia" ("Sank'ou Dutch well is buried under a sand
dune"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22861, 26 May 1991, p. 7 points to a pertinent example from
Chiali in T'ainan county. The "Sank'ou Dutch Well" was drilled and lined by the Dutch in
1624 and was still used by the local people up to the late 1940s. By the mid-1950s it was
covered in sand. In the mid-1980s a villager dug out another nearby well. However, by 1991
it was again covered in sand.
19. Ch'en Hsien-hsiung, "Tupo kunjing," Zhongyang ribao, 1995, pp. 9-14.
20. "Quansheng pujiang zhenyu hanxiang shaohou shujie" ("Whole province gets rain,
drought will be relieved shortly"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22837, 2 May 1991, p. 7.
over 18,000 hectares in the Chianan area of the south-west would not get
irrigation water for the first rice crop of 1996.21
The 1995 Ministry of Economic Affairs report stated that plans for
construction of 16 reservoirs along with new large river weirs could
increase water supply to meet needs until 2021.22 Members of the Control
Yuan receiving this report were quick to point out that if Taiwan was
losing the capacity of one reservoir per year through siltation, building 16
over the next 26 years would not solve the water problem even though
future reservoirs are to be low siltation sites. However, between 1995 and
2000 the national government also plans to help the local governments
which control the majority of Taiwan's small reservoirs to dredge them,
thus reducing the pace of capacity loss. Nevertheless, the building of 16
new reservoirs is an awesome task, as good reservoir construction sites
are scarce with most available lowland locations already occupied and
reservoir watersheds covering over one-quarter of Taiwan's territory.
Every time a new reservoir site is proposed local residents and environ-
mentalists mount opposition. Proper management of reservoirs will re-
main impossible as long as there is no central government water
conservancy administration.
Such shortages have triggered discussion as to how much water should
be devoted to agriculture, to industry and to domestic use. Currently
about 70 to 80 per cent of Taiwan's water is consumed by agriculture and
aquaculture.23 On this basis industrialists argue that it is agricultural water
use which should be cut back, especially as industry makes more
profitable use of the water. Those working for agriculture point out that
if industry is more profitable then it should put its profits into paying
more for water resource development.24 They also argue that agricultural
water consumption has remained stable for the last two decades, whereas
residential and industrial demand are now increasing at a rate of 120
million cubic metres per annum, that agricultural water use can be cut
back for other uses during times of crisis, and that most of the water used
for agriculture comes from rivers which are too silt-laden to be of
industrial or domestic use.25 Therefore, allotting 1,000 million cubic
21. Lei Hsien-wei, Huang Heng-tun and Chi Liang-yu, "Jiananqu mingrian yiqi daozuo
tingguan 18,000 yu gongqing" ("Next year in the Chianan area over 18,000 hectares of early
paddy will not be irrigated"), Lianhe bao, No. 16092, 18 November 1995, p. 1, states that
every hectare that is not planted will receive compensation of NT$2,500. Based on past
experience the government expects about 10,000 hectares of this area to be planted in dry field
crops. Another 4,000 plus hectares are expected "to beg for their own water." Therefore, only
about 4,500 hectares will actually sit idle. Considering rice stores this drop in yield should
not affect prices.
22. Chiang Chung-ming, "Quanqiu queshui guojia," p. 7. It was reported that these projects
would produce 3,200 million cubic metres of annual water supply at a cost of 300,000 million
yuan.
23. About four-fifths of this water goes on crop production and 15% for aquaculture with
the remainder for livestock and forestry.
24. Tsai Ming-hua interview by Jim Hwang, "How much water for the fields?" Free China
Review, Vol. 44, No. 7 (July 1994), p. 11. Overall water policy rests with the Water Resources
Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
25. Hwang, "Water: resource in crisis," p. 9.
metres of reservoir water to agriculture in years when there is no drought

means that there is a security cushion for domestic and industrial uses in
years of severe shortage. Even within the government, however, there are
serious divisions about how much water should be devoted to agriculture.
The government has instituted an industrial water use charge by volume
to encourage water saving by industries which has met with some
success, whereas efforts to reduce residential use have largely failed with
the public often hoarding water in times of shortage. Some scholars and
government officials have advocated raising domestic water charges to
induce frugality.
The government estimated that water needs will increase by 1,300
million tonnes between 1991 and 1996.26 In order to meet this increased
demand, it plans to build nine new medium and large reservoirs during
the current Six-Year Plan and has put more emphasis on decreasing water
pollution.27 It also plans to raise water rates to encourage saving. The
policy of cleansing water rather than trying to build public works such as
dams and reservoirs is very suitable for Taiwan with its relatively few
unused sites for reservoirs and relatively high levels of water pollution.
However, the shortages of electricity experienced by the ever-growing
economy has led to considerable criticism of the government for lack of
energy planning and demands for construction of new reservoirs, which
are seen as the answer to both water and energy shortages.
Subsidence
The extraction of ground water has led to subsidence problems, by as

much as 2.82 metres in places. It has been stated that 10 per cent of
Taiwan's level land is sinking, particularly seriously in counties as far
apart as Ilan, Changhua, Yunlin, Chia-i and P'ingtung as well as the
Taipei Basin.28 The problem is now quite major as one-third of Taiwan's
water usage comes from ground water, and industry and fish farming
are particularly heavily supported by ground water. Clearly the over-
26. "Fangzhi wuran xingjian shuiku" ("Prevent pollution construct reservoirs"),

Zhongyang ribao, No. 22828, 23 April 1991, p. 7.
27. According to Yang Cheng-ch'uan, "Pinglun 1," pp. 25-26, advocates of supply
increase rather than solely relying on strict water conservation, point out that if only 2% more
of water run-off is captured for use, then 1,350 million cubic metres of water can be added
to the overall supply. Others point out that with 22.5% of run-off now being used, the absolute
limit in economic terms that Taiwan can use is about 25% which means that adding 2%, while
possible, will be costly. Chang Shih-chiao, "Pinglun 1" ("Commentary 1"), in You Ch'ing,
Kua shiji Taiwan, p. 66 makes this point and provides an interesting comparison. The Techi
Reservoir dam is 180 metres high, the same as the Sanxia (Three Gorges) Dam being built
in Hubei province. However, the reservoir capacity of the Sanxia Dam will be 70 times that
of the Techi Reservoir. This shows the difficulties of finding suitable sites for expanding
reservoir capacity in Taiwan.
28. Arrigo, "The environmental nightmare of the economic miracle," p. 38, n. 43 quoting
from Zili wanbao, No. 204 (30 April 1993), p. 10. Hwang, "Water resource in crisis," p. 6.
Hsiao Ming-kuo, "Ezhi luchen zhengfu jue dafu jianshao yuwen" ("In order to halve ground
subsidence the government decides to greatly reduce fish fields"), Zhongyang ribao, No.
24481, 28 November 1995, p. 7 states that over 1057 sq km have been affected. The problem
becomes most obvious in typhoon season when sea water floods into the lowlands of the
south-west.
extraction of ground water is linked to the general problem of an overall

shortage of clean water. In February 1971, the Legislative Yuan promul-
gated the Taiwan Region Ground Water Control Method (Taiwan diqu
dixiashui guanzhi banfa). This decree was revised in 1977, 1980, 1983
and 1988 but the problem remained unabated. Much of the overpumping
in Taiwan is illegal. Government policies have been to supervise land use
zoning so that water extracting industries are discouraged from locating
in areas with subsidence problems, to strengthen management and plan-
ning of ground water use, and to educate people to be more frugal in their
use of water, but they have had little effect. The price of tapping ground
water with one's own well has been far cheaper than paying water bills.
In recent years monitoring of farms for overuse of ground water has
become easier with the use of satellite sensing.29 In April 1993 the
Council of Agriculture organized a Central Supervisory Prohibition
Group (Zhongyang dudao qudi xiaozu). This group designed a Ground
Subsidence Prevention Implementation Plan (Diceng xiaxian fangzhi
zhixing fang'an) which was passed by the Legislative Yuan in October
1995.30 The government plans to spend NT$1,500,000,000 to reduce fish
field area from today's 52,000 hectares to 22,000 hectares by 2000. While
the new plan looks good as it is based on water volumes used, the cost
to society has been estimated at over NT$10,180,000,000 which suggests
that not enough funds are being devoted to it and there will need to be a
lot of political will at the local level to halt subsidence.
Pollution
The rise in cancer deaths from 57 to 75 per hundred thousand people

between 1961 and 1984 and the rise in congenital deformation of infants
suggest that pollution has already begun to take its toll.31 Taiwan has
serious water, soil, air and noise pollution problems as well as solid waste
problems.
Water pollution. Water quality in Taiwan has deteriorated at one of the

fastest rates in the world.32 Today up to 12 per cent of Taiwan's crop field
area suffers from pollution induced by using polluted irrigation water.
Annual estimates of loss caused by crop pollution during the early 1980s
29. Hwang, "Water resource in crisis," p. 12.

30. Yang Hui-lan, "Luchen shehui chengben meinian baiyi" ("Ground subsidence social
cost NT$10,000,000,000 annually"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 24481, 28 November 1995, p. 7.
Hsiao Ming-kuo, "Ezhi luchen," p. 7. Zoning, help with alternative employment, ground water
management and education are to be included in an 18 work point plan. There are plans for
the Council of Agriculture to step up the establishment of fish rearing districts from today's
30 to 50 by 2000 in order to rationalize water use.
31. The Steering Committee Taiwan 2000 Study, p. 18.
32. Miu Lin et al., "Huanshu zhili wancheng daqijianwang shezhan" ("EPA puts its efforts
into completing atmospheric observation network"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22730, 10 January
1991, p. 7. Yvonne Yuan, "Paying for the past," Free China Review, Vol. 44, No. 7 (July
1994), p. 18 makes an interesting generalization in this central government sponsored journal
about water pollution in Taiwan: "Although the magnitude of the water pollution problem is
not as serious as it is in Albania or mainland China, it is great enough to cause rising concerns
about public health."
were over 310,000 tonnes per annum.33 Today all the major sources of
water suffer from pollution to some degree. Rivers and streams, however,
appear to be in a worse condition than lakes, reservoirs or ground water.34
The government is looking at nationalization of water services as one
way to improve the quality. The situation in Taipei became so bad in the
1990s that some municipal councillors issued a statement that water rates
should not be raised unless the city's water quality was also raised and if
this condition was not met, the mayor and water service director should
be forced to resign. In 1993, citizen groups in Kaohsiung tried to force
the Taiwan Water Company to invest in new purification equipment and
complained that the city government should do a better job of monitoring
water pollution. As permitted levels of water pollutants in Taiwan
province (the area of the island outside Taipei and Kaohsiung) are
generally higher, the situation there cannot be assumed to be better.
The Taiwan government has been slow to control its water pollution.
Selya notes that investment in sewerage treatment facilities during the
1960s was insufficient to reduce odours in the drainage systems let alone
reduce river pollution.35 The situation continued to worsen despite various
attempts to control pollution such as the National Water Pollution Control
Law which was drafted in 1969 and the beginnings of court actions in the
early 1970s against nearly 100 factories. Data from the early 1970s
suggest that, with the exception of turgidity and to some degree NH4,
water quality was not much below World Health Organization standards
of that time.36 The high levels of household waste and vault latrines
meant that roundworms, hookworms and liver flukes were commonly
found in children and the boiling of water was commonly accepted
practice in the 1960s and 1970s as today. The Water Pollution Control
Law of 1974 did little to improve the situation but pressure on polluters
has increased somewhat since the Environmental Protection Administra-
tion (EPA) was upgraded from bureau status in 1987. However, the
situation has continued to worsen. In cities such as Kaohsiung there has
even been a movement away from boiled water to the purchase of bottled
water in the 1990s as faith in urban tap water has declined.37 Some hope
may be taken from a recent statement that river pollution around indus-
trial areas appears to be decreasing.38
33. Juju Wang, Huanjingshehuixue de Chufa (The Beginnings of Environmental
Sociology) (Taipei: Guiguan, 1994), p. 16.
34. Hu Jo-mei, "Huanju yan shuizhi yuban buhege" ("EPA tests water quality, over half
doesn't meet standards"), Lianhe bao, 26 November 1995, p. 13, points out that over half the
2,400-odd water samples collected in Taoyuan county in the first ten months of 1995 did not
meet water quality standards. Over one-quarter those collected in schools were substandard.
Most alarming was that out of 1,662 ground water samples, 1,261 did not meet standards.
35. Roger Mark Selya, "Water and air pollution in Taiwan," Vol. 9, No. 2 (January 1975),
pp. 183-84. Water pollution problems were publicized openly with the Klassen-World Health
Organization report of 1966.
36. Selya, "Water and air pollution in Taiwan," pp. 180-81.
37. Eugenia Yun, "Safety in a bottle?" Free China Review, Vol. 44, No. 7 (July 1994),
p. 28. As is the case in Britain and elsewhere bottled water is not necessarily safer as there
are often no standards and there are many unlicensed vendors of bottled water.
38. A Cleaner Home and a Better Image Abroad: Taiwan's Environmental Efforts (Taipei:
Office of Science and Technology Advisors, Environmental Protection Administration,
1995), p. 5.
When Taiwan opted for a system to rectify its water pollution prob-
lems, emphasis was put on building sewerage systems for industry rather
than preventing water pollution at source. Along with a neglect of
standards this led to waste of water rather than encouraging adoption of
a view of water as a valuable resource to be recycled.
Today over 40 per cent of the total daily discharge of waste water is
from industry. Certain industries are particularly large producers of waste
water with the biggest polluters being the paper and pulping mills,
electroplating firms, dyeing plants, pesticide manufacturers, petrochemi-
cal plants and the food processing industry. The Environmental Protec-
tion Administration monitors less than 40 per cent of these sort of firms.
While it is said that they select the most serious polluters for monitoring,
there is still a significant number which go unchecked and many small
factories and family businesses merely dump waste water into street
drains.39
Domestic waste water accounts for slightly over one-third of the total
daily discharge and the proportion from household sources is increasing
fast.4" To a large extent this is because so few of Taiwan's households are
linked into sewage treatment systems.41 Connection of homes in previ-
ously built-up urban areas becomes extremely costly so that government
is likely to move slowly on this issue, and this has shown the slowest
progress in recent years.
Livestock rearing is the third largest cause of water pollution. Although
pigs are the worst polluters, duck and cattle also contribute.42 Since 1991,
the Council of Agriculture has extended low-interest loans to the larger
pig raisers to install waste treatment facilities. While 85 per cent of the
pig farms now have such facilities many do not use them because of
electricity and maintenance costs.43 Water pollution is also spurred on by
high application rates for pesticides and fertilizers."
Eutrophication is serious in all but three of Taiwan's rivers and 11 out
of the 12 largest reservoirs.45 The Kaop'ing and Tungkang rivers in
39. One reason that many factories go unchecked is that there is a large number which are
not registered with the government.
40. Yuan, "Paying for the past," p. 18 says that the Environmental Protection Agency feels
that domestic wastewater will become the major pollution source for rivers by 1997 if quick
action is not taken.
41. The best connection rate is in Taipei with about one-quarter of homes and businesses
connected to sewerage treatment. Kaohsiung treats about half its total wastewater.
42. According to Richard R. Vuysteke, "Wastewater primer," Free China Review, Vol. 44,
No. 7 (July 1994), p. 27, as pigs in Taiwan generally produce four to six times the amount
of excrement of a human, Taiwan's pig population creates as much sewage as 55 million
humans - over twice the human population of Taiwan.
43. Yuan, "Paying for the past," p. 21.
44. The Regulations for the Control of Environmental Pesticides were promulgated in 1984
although some had been regulated under provisions of earlier laws.
45. Chang, "Dwindling reserves," p. 42 points out that the sole low pollution watershed
of the Feits'ui Reservoir requires annual expenditures of US$150,000 on reforestation and
US$3 million on soil conservation. However, even this model reservoir has caused
environmental damage. Construction led to the destruction of the only known habitat of
Rhododendron kanehirai, a species of azalea which experts are now trying to reintroduce to
similar habits having found several garden-grown plants.
southern Taiwan are completely oxygen-dead. In places ground water is

seriously polluted. As on the China mainland, overpumping of ground
water is leading to salt water intrusion into coastal areas and there are
worries of pollutants seeping into ground water aquifers. Water supplies
have also been seriously polluted by ground water seepage into the
system.46
Soil pollution. Problems of heavy metals, pesticides and PCBs in

Taiwan's soils have all appeared in the last 30 years. The most serious
pollutants are cadmium, chromium, nickel, lead and zinc. A 1988 soil
survey indicated that 12.5 per cent of Taiwan's farm land has high
concentrations of heavy metals and every indication suggests that this
problem will worsen up to 2000.47 The potential for soil pollution can be
seen from the fact that as of 1990 only 16 out a total of an estimated
6,000 toxic substances frequently used in Taiwan were banned with about
200 proposed for control.48 The areas with the most serious soil pollution
are T'aoyuan, Changhua and T'aichung counties. In addition Taiwan's
soils have been organically polluted by pig waste and domestic waste
water.
Air pollution. Collection of data on dust fall and smoke concentration

was first carried out in 1959 although substantial data collection did no
begin until 1965. This is also the year in which 95 students were
overcome by fumes from a chemical plant in Kaohsiung although th
events appear to be unrelated. Burning of soft coal was banned in Taipe
in the late 1960s and was moderately successful.49 Also dust levels cam
down as more roads on the island were paved. Air pollution problems,
however, continued in the 1970s with people being hospitalized and eve
dying after exposure to industrial fumes. The government did not im
plement an air pollution control law until 1974.
While levels of particulate in the air have been decreasing since first
being measured in 1970, particulate levels were still above 100 yg/m3 al
over the island in the mid-1980s and over 60 pg/m3 in 1994.50 The
evidence available for other air pollutants such as CO, SO2 and NO2
suggests that some improvement has been made in the past couple of
years in part because standards for sulphur and lead in fuels have been
46. Yun, "Safety in a bottle?" p. 30 points out that Kaohsiung has renewed much of its
water supply piping in part to reduce the intrusion of polluted ground water into the system.
47. Eugene Chien, Working Towards Environmental Quality in the 21st Century (Taipei:
Environmental Protection Administration, 1991), p. 7.
48. Ibid. p. 14. Taiwan's Toxic Chemical Substances Control Act was promulgated in 1986
and amended in 1988 with enforcement rules for the Act promulgated in 1989.
49. Selya, "Water and air pollution in Taiwan," pp. 189-190.
50. 83 Huanjing baohu nianjian (Environmental Protection Yearbook 1994) (Taipei
Xingzheng yuan, Huangjing baohushu, 1995), pp. 101-102, 113-14. The highest average
levels in 1994 were in Taipei municipality (229.40 ig/m3) and Kaohsiung (181.19 ig/m3) with
the lowest in Ilam county (63.96% yg/m ). In terms of the 142 individual monitoring station
all over the island 52.8% had 24 hour particulate levels over 250 ig/m3. Only 35.9% of the
monitoring stations were meeting Taiwan's standard of 130 ig/m3. These values represent
modest improvements over 1993 with 1992 having been the worst year in the 1990s. Th
World Health Organization recommends 90 ig/m as a safe high level.
toughened.51 Sulphur dioxide emissions tended to be high in the 1980s

because high sulphur fuels were a cheap source of energy with which to
fuel industrial development. Bierma made the point that oil used in
Taiwan often had twice the sulphur content of coal.52 In general,
sulphates are at their worst along the West Taiwan Plain where most of
the industry and population is concentrated.53 In contrast calcium particu-
late levels are worse along the east coast were there is considerable
marble and limestone mining. Chloride levels in particulate matter are
highest near to Kaohsiung, probably because of the plastics industry.54
Taiwan's lack of success at air pollution control until the 1990s is due
in part to rapid industrialization. The use of private cars, motorcycles and
poorly maintained bus systems also has contributed greatly to air pol-
lution problems, especially in the Taipei Basin. The number of motor
vehicles registered went up by 15 times between the mid-1980s and
mid-1990s. The government hopes to improve upon vehicle emissions by
assisting taxis to convert to running on liquified petroleum gas and
getting all cars to use unleaded fuel by 2000.55
As the Republic of China is entering the ranks of industrialized
polities, the island is confronting air pollution problems of an ever
increasing scale. As an example, the Environmental Protection Adminis-
tration noted that the industrial city of Sanch'ung next to Taipei had 170
days of bad air quality and only three days of good air quality in 1990
which was a decrease from four good days in 1989!56 Foreign firms are
designing cosmetics which protect the skin against air pollution es-
pecially for use in Taiwan and the island is known for having the fastest
increase in asthma cases in the Asia-Pacific Region.57 Air pollution
protests continue with villagers surrounding the Hsingta Electricity Plant
near Kaohsiung during late May and June 1991 to demand that coal dust
emissions be reduced and that each family receive NT$580,000 as
compensation.58 Air pollution accidents also continue to occur, as when
51. Ibid. Of the 79 stations monitoring CO in 1994 only three had hourly values above
Taiwan's standard of 35 ppm. These were all in areas of Taipei Municipality near main
transport arteries. Only three out of 78 monitoring stations did not reach Taiwan's SO2 annual
standards. This represented a considerable improvement over 1993. Only one out of 77 NO2
monitoring stations failed to meet annual standards in 1994. This station (Tat'ung, Taipei
municipality) recorded an average annual value of 0.056 ppm with the Taiwan standard being
0.05 ppm. However, overall the NO2 problem seems to be most serious in the cities of Chia-i
and T'aichung. Sales of unleaded petrol more than tripled between 1990 and 1994.
52. Bierma, "Taiwan's air pollution problems," pp. 21-22. This led to high sulphate values
around cities such as Kaohsiung where all three local power plants burn oil.
53. In 1994 the administrative units with the most serious SO2 pollution were Miaoli
county followed by Kaohsiung county, Kaohsiung municipality, Taipei municipality and
T'aoyuan county.
54. Bierma, "Taiwan's air pollution problems," p. 23.
55. A Cleaner Home and a Better Image Abroad, p. 4.
56. Taibei Shi, Zhongyang ribao, 1991, p. 7.
57. Yueh Ching, "Industrialized Taiwan has region's highest increase of asthma patients,"
Free China Journal, Vol. 12, No. 47 (8 December 1995) p. 4, notes that by 1994 asthma cases
in Taiwan soared to eight times what they had been in 1974 with the largest concentration
amongst schoolchildren being in Taipei municipality. However, this increase could also be
due to changes in diet and other factors as well as increases in air pollution.
58. "Xingda dianchang meihui wuran Taidian yaoqiu jianding queding cai peichang"
("Hsingta electric plant coal dust pollution, Taiwan Electric proof and confirmation before
paying compensation"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22877, 11 June 1991, p. 7.
a gas factory in Kaohsiung leaked chlorine for close to two hours on 8

June 1991 resulting in one person dead and over 500 requiring hospital
treatment. The company, which had no proper safety equipment, was
forced by the Environmental Protection Administration to pay a fine of
NT$360,000 for the leak.59
Acidification. Acidification, commonly known as acid rain or some-

times as acid pollution, is a consequence of certain types of air pol-
lution.60 Normally rain is slightly acidic with an average pH of 5.6. Any
pH value for precipitation which is below that figure can be considered
to be polluted by acids.
Taiwan experts have pointed out that between 1990 and 1995, 85 per
cent of precipitation in the Taipei area had dropped below a pH level of
5 and the degree of acidity in Taiwan's precipitation is now worse than
in the north-eastern United States of America.61 While north-east Taiwan
contributes heavily to this problem, scientists in Taiwan feel that industri-
alization of mainland China's south-east coast areas is contributing up to
30 per cent of the acidity found in Taiwan's rainfall. The monsoon and
frontal nature of precipitation in northern Taiwan makes that area partic-
ularly susceptible to acidification from mainland China - both from the
south-east coast and the industrial areas of north China and the north-east.
Paradoxically, many companies along the south-east China coast were
established with Taiwan capital, in part to avoid Taiwan's stricter pol-
lution controls.
Noise pollution. As of the late 1980s there was no systematic surveying

network for noise measurement, and laws for noise control only date from
1983-84 with a spate of current legislation dating from the first half of
the 1990s.62 In a survey undertaken in Taipei during the late 1980s it was
found that transport noise from motorway flyovers was considered to be
the most disturbing form of noise pollution.63 Another survey suggested
that noise from neighbours was the most irritating, especially as the
majority who complained said that their neighbours were not willing to
59. "Liiqi waixiean jiuyi yiyu wubairen" ("Cloride gas leak already led to 500 people
needing medical attention"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22880, 14 June 1991, p. 7. The company
also agreed to pay medical expenses and compensation to those injured.
60. Acidification is caused by sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides being converted into
sulphuric and nitric acids when released into the atmosphere.
61. Huang I-ching, "Taiwan suanyu sancheng shi dalu wuranwu" ("Thirty per cent of
Taiwan's acid rain is mainland pollution"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 24366, 5 July 1995, p. 7.
Percentage of precipitation levels of pH below 5 for other parts of Taiwan include: Kueishan
81%, Hsiaokang 78%, Chungli 74% and T'aichung Harbour 52%.
62. The Steering Committee Taiwan 2000 Study 1989, p. 225. 83 Huanjing baohu
nianjian, p. 157.
63. Taipei Municipal Public Works Department, "Taibei Shi gaojia daolu yanxian zaoyin
diaocha baogao" ("Taipei municipality elevated roadside noise investigation report"), cited
in Juju Wang, Huanjingshehuixue de chufa, p. 15. See also Hsiao Hsin-huang Michael, "Cong
huanjingshehuixue kan yiban minzhong he lifaweiyuan dui huanjing wenti de renzhi,"
("Commoners and Legislative Yuan members understanding of environmental problems from
an environmental sociological viewpoint") Zhongguo luntan, Vol. 15, No. 8 (1984), pp.
44-49.
do anything about it.64 Noise was found to be affecting people's ability to

chat outdoors, sleep, think, read and watch television. In 1994, approxi-
mately 45 per cent of the noise control incidents handled by the Environ-
mental Protection Administration occurred in Taipiei municipality and 10
per cent in Kaohsiung municipality with the remaining 45 per cent
coming from Taiwan province.65
Monitoring of noise is now conducted around major airports and on a
few crucial sections of road. Some motor vehicles are required to obtain
noise control examination certificates. Noise, however, still is above the
good living level (65 dB(A)) in about one-sixth of the island's residential
areas. Sectors in which the Environmental Protection Administration
hopes to improve noise control are power generation and military related
noise.
A Cluttered Landscape
After my stay in Taiwan as a student during 1969-70, I did not return

to the island again for 20 years. The ride by train between Taipei and
T'aichung in 1990 was depressing compared with how I remembered it.
All along the railway was road strip development and piles of industrial
and domestic rubbish.66 Apart from the visual clutter, other forms of solid
waste also are polluting Taiwan's environment.
In all Taiwan less than one per cent of the human excrement receives
primary sewage treatment. Disposal of pig excrement and urine has been
described as one of the greatest sources of pollution in Taiwan.67 The
figure for solid waste generated per capita rose annually from 1980 to
1985 with the vast majority dumped in landfills, a trend which has
continued into the 1990s.68 In the summer of 1984, one of these "garbage
mountains" in the Taipei area caught fire. With the high level of plastics
mixed in with high levels of wet rubbish, the fire proved difficult to put
out and produced a toxic smoke.69 In the 1990s the problem continues to
worsen with the volume of municipal solid waste now growing 6 per cent
per annum with no sign of slowing down.70 Of current solid waste
treatment facilities under construction, close to one-quarter are incinera-
64. Huang Ch'ien-ch'iian, "Shequ jumin dui minsu zaoyin de fanying ji yingbian celue"
("Urban residents' reaction to social noise and suggested policy changes"), a report to the
former Environmental Protection Bureau of the Executive Yuan in 1988 cited in Juju Wang,
Huanjingshehuixue de Chufa, p. 15.
65. 83 Huanjing baohu nianjian, p. 151. The vast majority of incidents were cases where
it was discovered that noise control regulations were not being followed. The remaining 12.5%
of incidents dealt with meeting standards within the time allotted.
66. Reports in the English language literature on Taiwan repeat this sad observation. See
Arrigo, "The environmental nightmare of the economic miracle," p. 21; and Arthur Zich,
"Taiwan: the other China," National Geographic, November 1993, pp. 3-32.
67. Hsieh Chih-ytieh, "Yu Yuxian: mianlin nongye xin keti de taozhan," ("Yti Yii-hsien:
the approach to new problems facing agriculture"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22951, 24 August
1991, p. 7.
68. The Steering Committee Taiwan 2000 Study 1989, p. 176.
69. Bierma, "Taiwan's air pollution problems," pp. 25-26.
70. Laurie Underwood, "Trash clash: environmentalists and officials disagree on how to
boost recycling," Free China Review, Vol. 43, No. 8 (August 1993), p. 45.
tors and it is planned for incinerators to process 70 per cent of solid

wastes by 2000.71 This represents one of the major current environmental
protection investments in Taiwan.
The situation has become so serious that even scenic spots such as
Mount Ali in the centre of the island now require a major clean-up. In
1991, the Taiwan provincial government allocated NT$100 million to
build an incinerator and water treatment plant as part of the effort to
reduce the "filth and chaos" found at Mount Ali.72
To try to rectify the situation the government passed a Solid Waste
Disposal Act which has led to government agencies and manufacturers
working together to recycle items such as polyethylene terephthalate
(PET) drink bottles, tyres, metal cans, agricultural pesticide containers
and mercury-lead batteries. The government claims the most success with
the PET drink bottles for which they now give a NT$2 refund via local
convenience stores. In 1992 it was claimed that 40 per cent of the PET
bottles produced in Taiwan were recycled, supposedly rising to 80 per
cent in 1993.73
However, PET bottles make up less than one per cent of the total
volume of recyclable rubbish. Other attempts to recycle have largely
failed. In December 1992, 1,500 "igloo" recycling bins were removed
from the streets of Taipei and Kaohsiung after a three-year trial period.
Environmental groups had not liked the brightly coloured, expensive bins
because they were inefficient and managed as a monopoly by a beverage
manufacturing association.74 Their loss means that recycling is now
restricted to efforts by schools and community groups or falls to private
scavengers who go through the rubbish and turn items in to distributors
for cash. However, profits from recycling have been falling as a result of
cheap imports of recycled waste from the United States and Europe.75
There are some glass recycling plants in Hsinchu but few manufac-
turers are willing to pay for recycled glass bottles and fewer and fewer
people are willing to scavenge as the amount they receive for recyclable
materials falls.
To combat the drop in scavengers and to make the recycling business
taxable, local governments began neighbourhood recycling schemes in
Taipei during 1992. Materials brought in to specific collection points
were sorted and recycled. However, this proposal has been criticized as
less efficient than letting the scavengers get on with their work.
Juju Wang has undertaken an analysis of change in the environment of
71. A Cleaner Home and a Better Image Abroad, p. 5.

72. "Shengfu bokuan yiyi zhengdun Ali Shan zangluan" ("Provincial government sets
aside NT$100,000,000 to clean up Mount Ali"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22855, 20 May 1991,
p. 7. Wu Ming-lun, "Guanyin Shan zao lanken tongshan zhuozhuo," ("Kuan-in Mountain is
exploited and becomes a bald mountain"), Zhongguo shibao (China Times), No. 16405, 17
November 1995, p. 16 gives another example of Kuan-in Mountain near Wuku where
dumping of soil on this deforested mountain has led to landslides. Wu points out how the laws
related to dumping of wastes on this mountain have been poorly enforced.
73. Underwood, "Trash clash," p. 44. A Cleaner Home and a Better Image Abroad, p. 5.
74. Underwood, "Trash clash," p. 45.
75. Taiwan imports recycled paper, tin, aluminium, zinc and copper.
Taiwan's major cities between 1985 and 1990.76 Based on factors such as
the change in air and water quality, amount of rubbish, noise levels, and
money spent on environmental protection, he tried to produce faces
which reflected their environmental states. Not surprisingly, all the major
cities studied by Wang, with the exception of T'ainan, had sadder faces
by 1990.
Nature Conservation
Nature conservation was actually slower to start in Taiwan than on the

Chinese mainland after 1950. As in the mainland, economic concerns
related to forestry led the way.77 The Taiwan Provincial Forestry Bureau
was the pioneer in conservation and established six natural protected
areas and nature reserves between 1969 and 1989. However, it was also
responsible for much loss of natural habitat during these years.78 The
Tourism Bureau took the lead in nature conservation between 1980 and
1982 although its interests in this area have subsided in recent years. In
1981, a Cultural Heritage Preservation Law was passed with 14 nature
conservation areas and four wild animal protection areas established.79
Although the Republic of China passed its first National Parks Law in
1972, all five of Taiwan's national parks (K'enting (32,631 ha. including
marine area), Yushan (105,490 ha.), Yangmingshan (11,456 ha.), Taroko
(Tailuge, 92,000 ha.), and Shei-Pa (Xueba, 76,850 ha.) only have been
established since 1984. These parks cover 8.5 per cent of Taiwan's total
area and are the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior's National
Parks Department (Figure 1).
The Council of Agriculture is now the national government agency
responsible for natural resources outside the national parks and has
sponsored many ecological research projects."8 It has established 15
nature reserves and one wildlife sanctuary, and there are 20 nature
reserves which are national forest lands operating under the official usage
policies of the Taiwan Agriculture and Forestry Bureau (Figure 1).81 The
National Park Department of the Construction and Planning Administra-
tion, Ministry of the Interior, has also designated 11 coastal areas for
protection. Potential and existing reserves are widely scattered, though
76. Juju Wang, Huanjingshehuixue de chufa, pp. 153-186.

77. According to Chen I-i, Zhonghua Minguo huanbaofagui (Environmental Laws of the
Republic of China) (Taipei: Jinyu chuabanshe, 1989), p. 262, when Taiwan reverted to
Chinese control in 1945 the Forestry Law of the Republic of China was put into effect
immediately. This law was revised in 1972 and again in 1985. For the role of forestry in
mainland China nature conservation see Richard Louis Edmonds, Patterns of China's Lost
Harmony (London: Routledge, 1994), pp. 193-201.
78. The Steering Committee Taiwan 2000 Study 1989, pp. 116, 120.
79. According to Yvonne Yuan, "A sense of urgency," Free China Review, Vol. 44, No.
8 (August 1994), p. 12, eleven species of plants and 23 species of fauna were listed as
protected. Most of these conservation areas were for birds.
80. Council of Agriculture, First General Report of the Council of Agriculture (Taipei:
Council of Agriculture, 1986), pp. 160-67.
81. Island of Diversity: Nature Conservation in Taiwan, R.O.C. (Taipei: Council of
Agriculture and Department of National Parks, 1994), p. 26.
Figure 1: Nature Conservation in Taiwan
FUJIAN Yangmingshan N.P: Keelung

SFUJIA 4 3Kungliao -T'aipei -
T'aoyuan
Hsinchue ,a
St* Miao-li a * Suao
Shei-Pa N.P.
Taroko N.P.
Changhua T'aichung
Lukange
*Yunlin
P'enhu Penghu TAIWAN

Archipelago ColumnarTAIWAN
Nature
Preserve
Ma-kung Chia-i
-------- ---Mt. Ali ',." Yushan N.P.

A Cat-Islet .
Wildlife Chianan
Sanctuary Plain
T'ainan K
P'ingtung
Kaohsiung i
Nature preserves
Nature reserves
National parks
A Wildlife sanctuary LanyO

Main roads Heng-ch'unr Kenting N.P.
0 100 km
I I
there
of Taiwan.
Although the National Parks Law and the Cultural Heritage Preser-
vation Law remain cornerstones of aspects of nature conservation, the
1989 Wildlife Conservation Law meant that Taiwan finally had a system
for designating wildlife sanctuaries and criteria for evaluating protection
priorities. Taiwan's conservation areas either protect a complex ecosys-
tem as is the case of the national parks, a single ecosystem such as the
coastal protection areas, or a single species or land form (Figure 1). The
national parks are divided into five zones: ecological protection,
Table 2: Zoning for Ecosystem Protection in Taiwan's National Pa
Percentage of area devoted to pr

Ecological Significant Cultural/historic
Park name protection scenic preservation pro
K'enting (land) 29.53 13.05 0.0

(marine) 3.29 0.53 4
Yushan 60.89 3.20 0.32 0
Yangmingshan 10.76 38.24
Taroko 66.57 23.58 0.04
Shei-Pa 67.19 2.41 - 0.
Sources:
Island of Diversity: Nature Conservation in Taiwan, R.O.C. (Taipei: Counci
Parks, 1994), p. 10. According to Jim Hwang, "Have your park and save it t
1993), p. 55, there are five separate ecological protection areas at Shei-Pa, e
fauna.
significant scenic, cultural/historical preservation, recreational and gen-

eral protection. Only the first three zones receive maximum protection
(Table 2). While staff in the national parks have been working hard to do
research, educate and prohibit exploitation, the national park areas are
still not fully protected and exploitation of resources and private lands
within the parks continues. The general protection areas, where people
who lived in the area prior to proclamation as a park are allowed to
continue to use the land, make up 36 per cent of all national park lands.
In such general protection areas, residents can mine, farm, fish, raise
animals and even expand existing factories.82 Some of these activities are
the result of former policies which encouraged people to reforest moun-
tainous areas such as are found in Taroko and Shei-Pa National Parks.
Many of the people who came to the central mountains, however, opte
to grow fruit or vegetables rather than undertake long-term afforestation
As these parks are open to the public there are problems of traffic
congestion and vehicle pollution. Yangmingshan National Park, for ex-
ample, attracts about 2.5 million visitors every year. Under such pressure
it is difficult for the parks to preserve habitats or ecosystems.
As in mainland China, the authority of the parks can ultimately be
overruled by central policy decisions. In the areas protected by the
Taiwan Provincial Forestry Bureau, activities such as hunting continue
with only logging being closely supervised. The National Park system has
also had difficulty recruiting enough well-trained people to work in th
parks.83 There is a need for more local training in universities and
institutes on general ecology, land use management, pollution control and
sustainable development. Citizens' groups could be used more widely to
help support the system.
The Council of Agriculture decreed a ban on the import or export of
endangered wildlife in 1987. Since 1982, 23 species of fauna and 1
species of flora legally have been proclaimed as rare and worthy of
protection by the Republic of China government. As previously men-
tioned, the Wildlife Conservation Law appeared in 1989 which clearly
stipulated protection of endangered species. Animals and plants becam
classified into three levels of protection: protected, rare or endangered.84
Hunting as well as import and export of protected animals, including the
Asiatic black bear (Selenarctos thibetanus), were banned with prison
terms and fines stipulated.
However, nature conservation law enforcement has not been as vigor
ous as it should be. Foreign conservation groups and governments hav
82. Jim Hwang, "Have your park and save it too," Free China Review, Vol. 43, No. 8
(August 1993), p. 59 notes that mining continued in Yangmingshan, Taroko and Yushan unti
recently. These activities have at least now been required to seek government approval.
83. According to Jim Hwang, "Have your park and save it too," p. 57, the chief of th
National Park Department, Hsiao Ch'ing-fen, says few trained people are willing to take the
difficult Civil Service Exam required of national park officials.
84. Jim Hwang, "Research and rescue," Free China Review, Vol. 44, No. 8 (August 1994),
pp. 38-41, describes the functions of the Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute founded
in 1992 which tries to heal injured rare species and to introduce domesticated endemic specie
back into the wild.
continued to criticize the level of enforcement. The first gaol sentence for
buying an endangered animal and keeping it without registering or
reporting it to the authorities was delivered in Taipei in February 1991."85
Some of the endangered animals on sale in Taiwan come from mainland
China. In May 1991 a Fujian fishing boat full of endangered species was
seized off Suao in north-eastern Taiwan. This boat was described as a
"floating zoo.,"86 Animals on board included the endangered primates
Hylobates and Rhinopithecus. The captain said these "goods" were
prepaid for by a Taiwanese man. In other cases laws have lagged behind
need as when the first group of ten Formosan sika deer were released into
the wild within K'enting National Park in January 1994 even though
there was no law against hunting sika deer.87 There are also cases wher
there has been no punishment for those who break the law.88 Despite this
there are signs that the laws have reduced the problems of wildlife being
sold on the streets during the 1990s, and as of late 1994 open hearing
were being held on revising the Wildlife Conservation Law to make it
tougher.89
A major controversy developed between foreign conservation groups
and the Republic of China government in Taiwan over the sale of rhin
horns and tiger parts as medicines. The shop price for rhino horn shot up
in the mid-1980s when the Nationalist government banned their trade
Since 1990, the government has publicly burned large quantities of
confiscated horn and claims that younger people have no interest in using
the horn as a drug. Taiwan, together with mainland China, South Kore
and Thailand, however, were cited by the World-wide Fund for Natur
as continuing to import illegally large quantities and Taiwan receive
some very bad publicity from British and American environmental
groups.90 In autumn 1993 the government set up a Wildlife Conservation
85. "Yizhi malaixiong huande liuyue tiechuang" ("Malay bear set free from iron cage afte
six months"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22764, 13 February 1991, p. 7.
86. Lin Han-ch'ing, "Dalu yuchuan zousi youru haishang dongwuyuan" ("Mainlan
smuggling fishing boat is like a floating zoo"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22869, 3 June 1991,
p. 7.
87. Jim Hwang, "Back to nature," Free China Review, Vol. 44, No. 4 (April 1994),
pp. 64-65. Formosan sika deer have the scientific name Cervus nippon taiouanus, and are
known in Chinese as meihualu.
88. Paul Ming-hsien Sun interview by Yvonne Yuan, "On attitudes, laws, and civic
groups," Free China Review, Vol. 44, No. 8 (August 1994), p. 21, points out the example from
the original Wildlife Conservation Law that those who did not register that they were raising
wild animals were not punished.
89. According to Yuan, "A sense of urgency," p. 12 these reforms will toughen gaol
sentences and fines for dealing in listed species or their products. A controversial item to arise
out of these discussions is whether to allow commercial breeding of animals listed in the
appendices of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora. Animals now being raised on Taiwan include cobras, masked palm civets, tigers
and crocodiles. In general the government wants to let these businesses continue whereas
conservation groups want an all-out ban. On page 16 Yuan cites a study undertaken by students
at National Chunghsing University which suggests that the number of rare birds on sale
dropped significantly between 1985 and 1992.
90. Leigh Ann Hurt, "Rhino horn - trading in death?" WWF News, Vol. 71 (May-June
1991), pp. 4-5. A more radical example of this kind of accusation can be seen in the pamphlet,
Taiwan Kills Rhinos with Your Money (London: Environmental Investigation Agency et al.,
1992).
Investigation and Supervisory Task Force to deal with this issue. The
government says it has devoted US$37.7 million to this operation and
assigned more than 1,000 customs officials to anti-smuggling operations,
the Ministry of Justice has put 500 agents on this job, and the National
Police Administration has set up a unit which has local-level police
checking shops.91 At first, the police efforts were ineffective because the
medicine shops hid the banned items when police arrived. After the
police operations went covert the shops complained that they were being
coaxed into breaking the law. Even the head of the National Police
Administration, Wu Ch'ang-k'uan, said such operations are "basically
against the spirit of our criminal law."92 The government also claims a
lack of manpower to deal with this problem and has suggested that North
American and European conservation groups have distorted the facts to
make the situation with regards to rhino horn and tiger bone sales in
Taiwan appear worse than it is.93 In addition, they assert that they are now
supporting research to genetic and chemical substitutes.
Although there are plans to expand nature conservation networks,
many species of wildlife are already in danger. Management of Taiwan's
resources is not what it should be considering the level of economic
development achieved in recent years. Laws are only useful if enforced.
Although starting on nature conservation rather late, the Republic of
China on Taiwan can make rapid progress in this area provided the basic
ethics of the society are modified to become more environmentally
conscious. Increasingly it seems to be that wildlife control laws are being
better enforced. Yet these will remain only marginally effective if public
attitudes do not become more conservation oriented.
The Government's Coping Strategy
One political view of Taiwan's environmental dilemma is presented by

Linda Gail Arrigo, wife of the Democratic Progressive Party (Minchin-
tang) politician, Shih Ming-te.94 She places the blame in good part on the
Nationalist Party:
I contend that the environmental morass is not merely the result of a tardy awakening
to the ills of rapid industrialization, but the outcome of a particular political and
economic order, which I would summarize as: a refugee government that at first
thought of Taiwan mainly as a launching pad for retaking mainland China; export-led
industrialization, carried through largely by dispersed small and medium-size family-
owned industries, in contrast to, for example, [South] Korea's centralized industrial
91. Yuan, "A sense of urgency," p. 15. Yvonne Yuan, "The rhino redressed," Free China
Review, Vol. 44, No. 8 (August 1994), p. 35 points out that water buffalo horns have long
been used as a suitable substitute for rhino horns in Chinese medicine on Taiwan.
92. Yuan, "A sense of urgency," p. 16.
93. Paul Ming-hsien Sun interview by Yvonne Yuan, "On attitudes, laws, and civic
groups," Free China Review, Vol. 44, No. 8 (August 1994), pp. 22-23. Claims include use
of out-of-date information, lack of balanced reporting by not covering what efforts are being
taken to control the situation, and a lack of understanding of Chinese culture which prejudices
their surveying techniques in Taiwan.
94. Arrigo, "The environmental nightmare of the economic miracle," p. 23. See also Jack
K. Williams, "Environmentalism in Taiwan," in Simon and Kau, Taiwan: Beyond the
Economic Miracle, pp. 187-210.
conglomerations; and repression of civil society under martial law until 1987, which
long stifled possible social response to environmental ills.
Both environmental policy and citizen protests have been slow to

develop in Taiwan. Other reasons suggested for this, beside those men-
tioned by Arrigo, include: Chinese cultural values, the multiplicity of
environmental authorities within the government in the 1960s and 1970s,
and the brain drain of qualified environmentalists to the United States. No
doubt rapid economic growth, which was not precluded by heavy military
spending, has also been significant both in increasing pollution and
awareness of environmental issues. In many ways there are similarities
with mainland China except that movement away from a repressive stand
by the government and the opening of society to outside influences began
much earlier in Taiwan. For example, Selya points out that the Taiwan
media were presenting considerable amounts of information about pol-
lution in the late 1960s, although much of it was contradictory.95 The
mainland did not reach a similar position until the late 1970s.
From 1970 environmental protection in Taiwan was handled by the
Bureau of Environmental Sanitation. As a consequence hygiene and
sanitation were more emphasized than other aspects of environmental
protection work. A Bureau of Environment Protection was not established
until 1982, largely as a response to the grave environmental situation. The
Bureau was a secondary agency under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of
Public Health and was further subdivided into six sections with emphasis
on pollution control and public health. Han Chien pointed out that this
structure only covered environmental protection by a rather narrow
definition of the topic with other responsibilities located in different
ministries.96 A ministry bureau might have control over both exploitation
and protection of resources: the Bureau of Industry in the Ministry of
Economic Affairs, for example, was responsible for both industrial
development and industrial pollution control.
Han Chien also notes that although the Republic of China had air
pollution, water pollution, noise and solid waste control acts, there was no
overall environmental protection policy act.97 Enforcement of laws was
also a problem as the Bureau of Environmental Protection did not have
enforcement powers nor enough properly trained personnel. Moreover,
the division of responsibilities between national, provincial-level and
local government on this small island led to complications in environ-
mental protection since pollution and ecosystems often cross internal
boundaries.
Investment in environmental protection equipment was also modest.
The government spent only 0.012 per cent of GNP on anti-pollution
facilities between 1983 and 1987 whereas the United States of America
spent 0.14 per cent and Japan 0.34 per cent.98 After some rapid growth
95. Selya, "Water and air pollution in Taiwan," p. 197.

96. Han Chien, "The institutional problems of land use and environmental planning in
Taiwan," Urban Law and Policy, Vol. 8, No. 5 (1987), pp. 458-59.
97. Ibid. p. 461.
98. Williams, "Environmentalism in Taiwan," pp. 196, 205.
in the protection equipment budget in the late 1980s, growth in the early
1990s was only modest. Industrial zoning initially made no attempt to site
small-scale industries together in order to facilitate processing of waste
products, and even today close to one-quarter of registered industries are
situated in or near residential areas.
Laws, standards and penalties for environmental pollution began to
appear just prior to the end of martial law. Taiwan's Environmental
Protection Administration (EPA) was established in 1987 within the
Executive Yuan. While some organizations, such as the Environmental
Protection Union (Taiwan Huanjing Baohu Lianmeng), contend that the
EPA exists largely for public relations and to play for time without
changing the rules of the game, its creation has shown that there is an
awareness within the government for the need at least to be seen to be
doing something about environmental degradation. However, the EPA is
plagued by the fact that key legislation is often blocked in the Legislative
Yuan which hampers the ministry's ability to control pollution. For
example, in mid-1991 the Air Pollution Control Law Revision Proposal,
the Pollution Disorder Abatement Law and the Environmental Impact
Assessment Law were all held up in the Legislative Yuan.99 In spite of
this, environmental laws have expanded from 103 in 1989 to 280 in 1994.
As of 1994, the Republic of China on Taiwan had a total of only 3,034
people working on environmental problems within government and only
602 of these worked for the national EPA (Figure 2). In 1990, the
government estimated that during the coming decade there would be a
need for an additional 200,000 environmental workers in public and
private sectors. Investment during the 1990s should total over
NT$1,000,000,000,000 and emphasize sewer construction and abatement
facilities. 1?
The government is aware that environmental consciousness still needs
to be developed. In response to this, some of its branches have begun to
stage events to promote environmental awareness. For example, in 1991
the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau began to host public events and
run public service announcements in the media just prior to the beginning
of the rainy season to build support for soil and water conservation.'0'
Education projects are being developed in conjunction with universities
99. The Environmental Impact Assessment Law was finally promulgated on 30 December
1994. According to A Cleaner Home and a Better Image Abroad, p. 3, Taiwan's law is one
of "the most advanced EIA laws in the world" because of three characteristics: environmental
authorities have the veto power on projects; violations of EIA commitments are punishable;
and government policies that are thought to affect the environment are subject to EIA
procedures. No comment is made on the inherent difficulties of one branch of government
trying to protect the public from government policy. Of the 407 environmental impact
assessments undertaken between the implementation of the temporary environmental impact
assessment programme in 1985 and the new law in 1994, 132 did not pass.
100. "Huanbaofangwu jiangcheng 90 nian mingxing qiye" ("Environmental protection
anti-pollution equipment will be the star enterprise of 1990"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22665,
6 November 1990, p. 7. According to 83 Huanjing baohu nianjian, p. 50, there were 31,424
environmental protection workers as of June 1994 although 28,120 of these were involved
in rubbish removal and waste water plant work.
101. Hwang, "Water resource in crisis," p. 16.
Figure 2: Environmental Work Within Government
induatriel
Development
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Ministry of ..:.:water
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gonitation and Toxic
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Environmental Agencies with Environmental
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: . . . . . . . . . . :
'l' O : Agencies with resource
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?,p~ C- GoverlnmentJ uOther Government Entities

Source:
Based upon Taiwan in Pursuit of Sustainable Development (T'aipei Environmental Protection

Administration, n.d.), p. 10
which should produce long-term positive results. A Green Mark for

environmentally friendly consumer products was introduced in 1993 and
197 products attained it by the end of 1994.
The Social Impact

Development of non-governmental environmental organizations. Tai-
wan's people are increasingly aware of the environmental problems
surrounding them and are more willing to voice their discontent.102
Although the first environmental non-governmental organization (NGO)
appeared in post-war Taiwan in 1950, there were few others and little
open opposition to government environmental policy prior to the early
1970s.103 A group of businessmen and government health officials formed
the National Environmental Sanitation Association in 1972 which tried to
act as a mediating group between the government and business. Taiwan's
largest environmental NGO with 1,600 members, the Wild Bird Society
of the Republic of China, grew from a society founded in 1973. Even in
the 1970s there was political difficulty organizing grassroots environmen-
tal movements.
With land in short supply, however, conflict between industrial growth
led development plans and the welfare of the general public has increased
year by year. In a mid-1980s' survey environmental pollution was seen as
the second worst social problem out of 15, behind youth crime.'" The
same survey revealed that environmental pollution was perceived to be
the most serious problem for the coming five years. Other surveys in
Taiwan from the 1980s showed the same result: environmental problems
were seen to be one of the most serious problems for the future, if not the
most serious.'05 By the 1990s, there were dozens of environmentally-
oriented NGOs all over Taiwan. While many of these, such as the Wild
Bird Society and the Baha'i Office of the Environment for Taiwan, have
taken funds from the government and co-operated with them, others, such
as the USA-based group Earth Trust and the Taiwan Environmental
Protection Union, refuse to take government funds and either see them-
selves as watch dogs or have their own political agenda. Whatever their
relationship to the government, the NGOs have been hampered by their
102. According to the Republic of China Yearbook 1995, p. 232, by 1993 government
environmental agencies alone registered 84,273 complaints about environmental nuisances.
There were four major causes of complaint: over 38% of the total were related to waste
disposal issues, just under 23% were about noise, just over 22% were air pollution related,
and just under 10% were about foul odours.
103. The first unofficial environmental organization was the Animal Protection Associ-
ation of the Republic of China based in Taipei.
104. Hsiao Hsin-huang Michael, "Guanqie Taiwan xianzai de weilai de shehui wenti"
("Concerning Taiwan's current and future social problems"), Zhonghe zazhi, No. 45 (1986),
pp. 150-162.
105. For more on changed social perceptions towards environmental problems see Juju
Wang, Huanjingshehuixue de Chufa, pp. 12-14 and The Steering Committee Taiwan 2000
Study, pp. 352-383.
Table 3: Some Environmental Groups in Taiwan
The Animal Protection Association of ROC

The Association of Protection and Breeding for Rare Animals
Baha'i Office of the Environment for Taiwan
Beautiful Taiwan Foundation
Chinese National Park Society
Earth Trust
Environmental Greenery Association of ROC
Green Consumers' Foundation
Homemakers' Union and Foundation
Life Conservationist Association of the ROC
MOA International Foundation of Natural Ecology
New Environment Foundation
The Orang-utan Foundation Taiwan
Society for Wildlife and Nature ROC
Taiwan Environmental Protection Union
Taiwan Pheasant Birds Conservation Association
Trade Record Analysis Flora and Fauna on Commerce in Taipei
Wild Bird Society of ROC
The Zoological Society of Taipei
Ecological Conservation League
Sources:
Republic of China Yearbook 1995, p. 233, and various other sources.
small size and individual priorities, with co-operation having only been
piecemeal in the past. In the winter of 1993-94, however, 16 groups
established the Ecological Conservation League, the first large environ-
mental NGO alliance, in order to gain advantages from large scale project
co-operation.1"
The techniques used and types of events sponsored by environmental
organizations in Taiwan were surveyed at the beginning of the 1990s.107
The largest category of events was related to pollution control followed
by sanitation and general environmental promotion. In general, govern-
mental organizations, like the Environment Protection Administration,
use a wide range of promotion techniques, have larger amounts of funds
for each event, hold joint events more often, and tend to use passive
forms of promotion such as pamphlets or news sessions. The NGO events
are more likely to be single issue oriented, run by one organization and
often involve discussion meetings.
Increasingly, environmental issues in Taiwan are becoming politicized
106. Wang Fei-yun, "Grassroots initiative," Free China Review Vol. 44, No. 8 (August
1994), p. 32.
107. More detailed results can be found in Juju Wang, Huanjingshehuixue de Chufa, pp.
65-69.
and opposition is using more violent means of protest."18 The classic case
was the Lukang "rebellion" of 1986 and 1.987 against the construction of
a titanium dioxide plant in the Changpin Industrial Zone by the DuPont
Corporation of the United States of America. James Reardon-Anderson
described this as an unique event in Taiwan's environmental history since
public consciousness had reached a critical mass as the government was
beginning to undertake political reforms.'" The protest caused DuPont to
back down and not build the plant. Violent demonstration continued in
the 1990s as shown by the case of one representative in the Legislative
Yuan who spread coal dust all over the Director of the Taiwan Electric
Company in 1991 as a protest over air pollution produced by the
company at their Hsingta Electricity Plant throughout the 1980s.110
Because of lack of diplomatic recognition, the Republic of China on
Taiwan is not able to participate directly in many environmental organi-
zations. In some ways, the links of Taiwan non-governmental organiza-
tions to international NGOs are seen as a favourable development by the
government as they give Taiwan a more visible international profile even
though they also increase pressure on local polluters from overseas. The
local NGOs are becoming more sophisticated through this process as well
as through the return of educated people to work on the island.
Taiwan often follows the international environmental conventions even
though it is not a signatory. One example has been the effort to reduce
CFC consumption in line with the Montreal Protocol: CFC use in Taiwan
has fallen considerably since 1988. The Policy-Guiding Committee on
Global Change made up of members from relevant cabinet-level agencies
looks after international environmental agreements such as the Montreal
Protocol, the Basel Convention, the CITES Convention and Agenda 21.
108. Arrigo, "The environmental nightmare of the economic miracle," p. 24 notes a report
Taiwan shengjie yu shenghuo pingzhi (Quality of Life in the Bioregion of Taiwan), Research
Report 2, Fujen University, Theological Institute (June 1992) which she summarizes as stating
that in a survey of 1,400 people about life satisfaction in Taiwan "80% expressed
dissatisfaction with the official policy of economy first, ecology second; 75% agreed that
Taiwan's buildings are deficient in aesthetics; and 92% agreed that air quality and
environment were getting worse day by day - a much more vehement response than in the
previous 1980 survey."
109. James Reardon-Anderson, Pollution, Politics, and Foreign Investment in Taiwan:
The Lukang Rebellion (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1992). While experts contended the
titanium dioxide plant was harmless, Lukang oystermen and fishermen feared that pollution
from the plant would destroy their livelihood.
110. As of mid-1995 legal action was beginning against the Hsingta Plant Assistant
General Director, Shen Wen-lan, who was accused of illegal activities in aiding the German
company, Siemens, to obtain a contract. Others were also indicted. Wang Li-yti, et al.,
"Huishou fei luntai yida baqian gongdun" ("Recovered used tyres already total eight thousand
tonnes"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22742, 22 January 1991, p. 7, described attempts to undertake
some measures to clean up the environment such as by retrieving old tyres and cutting them
up and burning them to produce energy, which were blocked by citizens' groups which had
little confidence that the government could be trusted when it said that such burning will cause
little air pollution. As a result the tyres piled up in eleven special dumps at the rate of 2,000
metric tonnes a month.
Public health. Surveys undertaken in Taipei nursery schools have

shown that up to one-quarter of the children were suffering from conjunc-
tivitis induced by air pollution. Intangible health problems have also
risen. The purchase of bottled water in Kaohsiung is a case in point. The
scare of water pollution is leading to a situation where people are
reluctant to have contact with water. Increasingly, people in Taiwan are
becoming more cloistered inside their homes to "protect" themselves
from the environment outside. Along with rising crime, children's edu-
cation and political uncertainty about the future, environmental pollution
has become an incentive for emigration.
The nuclear issue. In an island with so much seismic activity the use
of nuclear power is worrying. In part to overcome this, several universi-
ties in Taiwan have since the early 1980s been researching ways of
predicting and preventing earthquake disasters. Taiwan currently has
three nuclear power plants with four reactors. At one point in the early
1990s, the Taiwan Electric Company expected to have 20 reactors by the
year 2000. As of mid-1995 the government expected to have six reactors
up and running by 1996 and seven by 1997."' Approval for the establish-
ment of nuclear power plants in Taiwan and belief in their safety
generally decreased throughout the 1980s. As there has been serious
debate as to whether additional nuclear power plants should be built since
the mid-1980s and violent protests in the 1990s, the Taiwan Electric
Company will not reach its goal of 20 reactors by 2000.
The need for electricity, however, is expected to double between 1991
and 2001 to reach a total demand of 34 million kilowatt hours per annum
(Table 4).112 The site for a fourth nuclear power plant has already been
designated at Yenliao in Kungliao village in Taipei county. Although the
Ministry of Economic Affairs says Yenliao is a suitable site for a plant
Table 4: Power Demand in Taiwan
Year Demand in kilowatt hours per annum
1994 18,610,000
1996 (est.) 20,960,000
2001 (est.) 34,000,000
Source:
Yang Hui-lan and Chu Ch'un-mei, "Hedian dui wo nengyuan
gongying you qi biyaoxing" ("Nuclear power has its necessity for
our energy supply"), Zhongyang ribao (Central Daily News
International Edition), No. 24354, 23 June 1995, p. 7.
111. Yang Hui-lan and Chu Ch'un-mei, "Hedian dui wo nengyuan gongying you qi
biyaoxing" ("Nuclear power has its necessity for our energy supply"), Zhongyang ribao, No.
24354, 23 June 1995, p. 7.
112. "Yanliao jian hesi jue bu gaibian" ("Construction of nuclear reactor four at Yenliao
definitely will not be changed"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22766, 20 February 1991, p. 7.
from a geological point of view, there have been protests against con-
struction and some tension at the site. Environgental groups, Kungliao
residents and the opposition-controlled Taipei county government have
all demonstrated their opposition.113 A large anti-nuclear demonstration
took place on 5 May 1991 in Taipei spurred on by the controversy over
construction of this fourth nuclear plant. As a result of pressure, the
Legislative Yuan was forced to freeze the budget for the fourth nuclear
plant in 1993.
In addition to new nuclear power plants, the Taiwan Electric Company
will have to find a final storage site for low level radiation nuclear waste
by 1996 which it can begin using by 2000.114 The most likely site appears
to be Lanyti (Orchid Island), a small island with a large minority
population, about 70 kilometres to the south-east of Taiwan where such
nuclear waste is now being temporarily stored. Local residents, however,
have already staged small protests before any decision is made."15 In June
1995, the Democratic Progressive Party's Legislative Yuan members
proposed a motion to move all the waste on Lanyti to the United States
for storage while Lanyti aborigines came to Taipei to protest outside the
assembly.116 There is sure to be further debate in Taiwan about the
location of its nuclear waste storage site. There are plans to open a
nuclear waste dump site in the Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia and
Taiwan has seriously thought about trading technology in nuclear energy
for the right to store waste at this desert site, and North Korea has agreed
to store 60,000 barrels of Taiwan nuclear waste.117
113. Huang Tzu-ch'iang, "Fanhe tuanti danxi Liyuan changmian huibao" ("Anti-nuclear
group clean the Legislative Yuan with eggs, the scene is fiery"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 24354,
23 June 1995, p. 7 describes one such confrontation on 21 June 1995 when the Democratic
Progressive Party, Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, and anti-nuclear groups from
Yanliao, Kungliao and Lanyti battled with police and threw eggs at the Legislative Assembly
in an attempt to show solidarity with attempts by some legislators to block approval of the
Kungliao fourth nuclear power plant's budget. "You Qing yangyan jufa jianzhao" ("You
Ch'ing discloses his refusal to issue a construction permit"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 24354,
23 June 1995, p. 7 notes that at the same 21 June Legislative Yuan session, Taipei county
Governor, You Ch'ing, made a surprise visit at 11 a.m. but was denied the right to speak by
the Nationalist Party dominated assembly. Outside he made a statement that the county
government would not issue a permit to the number 2 nuclear power plant to use a nuclear
waste warehouse.
114. "Yuanweihui wancheng chubu guihua" ("Nuclear Commission completes prelimi-
nary plan"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 22766, 20 February 1991, p. 7.
115. "Kangyi hefeiliao zhucun zai Lanyu" ("Resist nuclear waste storage on Lanyti"),
Zhongyang ribao, No. 22768, 22 February 1991, p. 7.
116. Hsiao Mingguo and Huang Tzu-ch'iang, "Chaoye liwei duijue hesi yusuan chushen
guoguan" ("Nationalists and the opposition Legislative Yuan members deadlocked: fourth
plant budget gets past its first initial enquiry"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 24354, 23 June 1995,
p. 7. The motion failed to pass. For opposition views of the problem see Lin Chun-i and Lin
Pi-yao, "Qiangjiu Lanyu, shengyuan Yameiren" ("Save Lanyii, support the Ami people"),
Taiwan huanjing (Taiwan Environment), No. 82 (1 July 1995), p. 18; and Huang I-feng,
"Lanyu de bianchui diwei ji qi beiju mingyun" ("Lanyti's peripheral position and its tragic
fate"), Taiwan huanjing, No. 83 (15 August 1995), p. 7.
117. "Dalu jiao Taiwan luohou shinian" ("Compared to Taiwan the mainland is about ten
years behind"), Zhongyang ribao, No. 23186, 5 April 1992, p. 7.
Conclusion: Can the Situation be Turned Around?
Currently there is still a lack of co-ordination amongst governmental

organizations and between government and private groups as well as a
lack of comprehensive environmental policies. Problems have also arisen
over conflicting development policies."118 The neglect and inability of
government to deal effectively with environmental problems in the past
has led to a loss of public confidence which in turn hinders communi-
cation and impairs co-operation.
The natural cleansing capabilities of Taiwan are good and there is
money in Taiwan which can be used to do a lot towards turning around
environmental problems. The question that remains is whether the people
and the government have the will to do something about it. To place total
blame for the problem on the Nationalist Party, Taiwanese-mainlander
conflicts, capitalism or authoritarianism is overly simplistic.119 From an
environmental point of view Taiwan has not been a good development
example. Increased openness in government and in business, however,
will necessitate change in environmental attitudes. That such openness
has increased steadily in Taiwan since the late 1980s suggests that there
will be positive changes. As already noted, people in Taiwan are becom-
ing increasingly aware of environmental issues and the government is
slowly shifting priorities. With the high population densities and prevail-
ing highly consumptive lifestyle, however, greater changes in attitude
will be required. In addition, political openness increases the funding
competition from other forms of social welfare, such as health care
programmes.
What can Taiwan do to alleviate its environmental problems? For a
start, there is a need for stricter land use planning and regulations against
the use of fragile areas like slope lands, coastal fishing grounds and areas
near water sources. Environmental monitoring needs to be increased and
standards need to be strictly enforced, especially for smaller industries.120
Construction must take into account professional opinions about both
118. Hwang, "Water: resource in crisis," p. 15 points out how policy developed by the
former Mountain Agricultural Resources Development Bureau to encourage farmers to
cultivate slope lands in the 1960s through technical assistance and loans had to be reversed
in order to stop soil erosion. Even now the subsidy to plant trees on slopes adds up to lower
value than growing fruit, tea or vegetables on such lands.
119. One problem peculiar to the Republic of China is that as few countries or international
organizations recognize the government's existence, environmental problems of an
international nature, such as the oil spill into the sea from the tanker, Borag, roughly 5
kilometres off Keelung in January 1977 which affected the northern Taiwan coast (cited in
Joseph W. Dellapenna and Ar-young Wang, "Protecting the Republic of China from oil
pollution in the sea: accounting for damages from oil spills," Texas International Law Journal,
Vol. 19 (1984), pp. 115-138), could prove difficult to prosecute under foreign or international
law. Whereas the Republic of China has been accommodated and been accommodating over
various international issues, pollution dumping at sea or cross boundary air pollution matters
could prove difficult.
120. According to 1993 State of the Environment Taiwan, R.O.C. (Taipei: Environmental
Protection Administration, 1993), p. 34, at the end of 1991, Taiwan bad 184 air monitoring
stations. According to 83 Huanjing baohu nianjian, pp. 154-56, as of 1993 there were 59 noise
monitoring stations surrounding Taiwan's six major airports and 19 stations monitoring traffic
noise on heavily used roads.
ecological and aesthetic quality. Natural resource exploitation must be

reduced by conservation wherever possible with technological emphasis
on efficiency rather than on convenience. Most important of all, but also
the most difficult, is that people's collective attitude towards their
environment must change.
Appendix: A Chronology of Environmental Events in Taiwan since

1970
1971 February: Taiwan Region Ground Water Control Method

promulgated.
March: National Health Administration and Environmental
Sanitation Administration of the Executive Yuan established.
1972 National Environmental Sanitation Association formed.
National Parks Law passed and Forestry Law revised.
Plans for a nuclear waste dump on Lanyti formulated.
November: Statute Governing Drinking Water promulgated;
enforced from 16 December.
1973 Taipei Bird Society, predecessor to the Wild Bird Society of the
Republic of China founded.
1974 July: Water Pollution Control Act and the Waste Disposal Act
promulgated.
1975 May: Enforcement Rules of the Water Pollution Control Act first
promulgated.
1976 October: Enforcement Rules of the Air Pollution Control Act first
promulgated.
1977 January: tanker, Borag, spills oil into the sea 5 km off Keelung.
Taiwan Region Ground Water Control Method revised.
1979 July: Kaohsiung Municipality establishes its Environmental
Control Bureau.
1980 April: Waste Disposal Act promulgated and amended.

Taiwan Region Ground Water Control Method further revised.
1981 Cultural Heritage Preservation Law passed.
1982 July: Environmental Protection Bureau established under the
National Health Administration.
1983 Taiwan Region Ground Water Control Method further revised.

1984 January: K'enting National Park designated.
May: Enforcement Rules of the Water Pollution Control Act
approved by the Executive Yuan and promulgated.
May: Regulations for the Control of Environmental Pesticides
promulgated.
Council of Agriculture established.
December: Enforcement Rules of the Noise Control Act first
promulgated.
1985 April: Yushan National Park designated.

Government implements temporary environmental impact
assessment programme.
55 Legislative Yuan representatives request a temporary halt to
the construction of the fourth nuclear power plant.
September: Yangmingshan National Park designated.
Shellfish in southern Taiwan poisoned by the emission of copper
sulphate into the nearby seas - the so-called "Green oyster" affair.
Forestry Law revised.
1986 Lukang "rebellion" against the construction of a titanium dioxide

plant by DuPont begins.
June: Tamshui River Mangrove, Kuantu, P'inlin Taiwan Ketelee-
ria, Hahp'en, Yuanyang Lake, Miaoli Sanyi Hoyenshan, T'aitung
Taiwan Cycas, and Tawu Taiwan Amentotaxus nature preserves
designated.
October: protests against Taiwan Electric's nuclear power policy.
November: Toxic Chemical Substances Control Act promulgated.
1987 April: Effluent Standards approved; promulgated in May.

July: Environmental Protection Administration upgraded to an
independent, ministry level organization.
September: Essentials of the Current Stage Environmental
Protection Policy promulgated.
November: Environmental Protection Union established.
November: Taroko National Park designated.
Ban placed on the import or export of endangered wildlife.
December: the Ami tribe on Lanyti begin to organize their own
protest movement against the disposal of nuclear waste on the
island and stage a protest in Taipei.
1988 January: Tawushan Nature Preserve designated.

February: Guidelines for Reviewing and Approving the
Operations of Environmental Microbial Agents promulgated.
March: Yenliao, Kungliao village, Taipei county Anti-nuclear
Self-salvation Society founded with over 1,000 members and
disturbances occur in Yenliao.
April: Anti-nuclear demonstrations and hunger strikes occur in
Taipei outside the Taiwan Electricity building.
April: Regulations Governing the Ban on Smoking in Public
Places promulgated.
November: Waste Disposal Act further promulgated and
amended.
November: Toxic Chemical Substances Control Act amended.
Taiwan Region Ground Water Control Method further revised.
1989 February: 20 species of local animals proclaimed rare and worthy

of protection and Wildlife Conservation Law passed.
March: Yenliao, Kungliao village, Taipei county Anti-nuclear
Self-salvation Society merged with the Environmental Protection

Union.
April: anti-nuclear demonstrations take place.
August: Enforcement Rules of the Toxic Chemical Substances
Control Act promulgated.
1990 April: anti-nuclear demonstrations take place in Hengch'un and

Kungliao.
July: new motor vehicle emission standards imposed based on
U.S. federal emission standards.
September: Guidelines for Reviewing and Approving the
Operations of Environmental Microbial Agents revised.
November: Taipei county assembly passes resolution against
construction of a nuclear reactor at Kungliao.
1991 January: motor vehicle noise control method goes into effect.
February: Regulations Governing Transportation of Toxic
Chemicals promulgated.
May: Water Pollution Control Act further amended.
May: a Fujian fishing boat full of endangered species destined for
Taiwan seized off Suao.
May-July: anti-nuclear fourth nuclear power plant demonstra-
tions.
Taiwan Forest Management and Administration Policy
implemented.
September: Environmental Impact Assessment for fourth nuclear
power plant passed with conditions and anti-nuclear demonstra-
tions intensify.
1992 January: Effluent Standards and Noise Control Criteria amended.

January-February: environmental impact assessment for fourth
nuclear power plant passed to the Ministry of Economic Affairs
which approves it and passes it to the Executive Yuan which
approves it. Demonstrations occur throughout the spring.
March: Ch'at'ienshan, Nanao Hardwood Forest, P'enghu
Columnar Basalt, Alishan Taiwan Pleione, Ch'uyunshan, and
Wushanting Mud Volcano nature preserves designated.
February: Air Pollution Control Act and Noise Control Act
amended.
April: Air Quality Standards promulgated.
June: Legislative Yuan unfreezes the budget for fourth nuclear
power plant.
July: Shei-Pa National Park designated.
December: Enforcement Rules of the Water Pollution Control Act
amended and Effluent Standards promulgated.
1993 January: Hazardous Waste Import and Export Permit Regulations

promulgated.
February: Environmental Protection Administration introduced
Green Mark for environmentally friendly products.
February: Enforcement Rules of the Air Pollution Control Act

amended, Enforcement Rules of the Noise Control Act amended,
and Laws for the Settlement of Public Nuisance Disputes passed.
March and May: anti fourth nuclear power plant demonstrations
held.
June: Environmental Protection Administration signed an en-
vironmental technology co-operation agreement with its U.S.
equivalent.
September: Environmental Protection Administration begins
operation of Taiwan Air Quality Monitoring Network.
Autumn: Wildlife Conservation Investigation and Supervisory
Task Force set up to deal with rhino horn issue.
October: Committee for Public Nuisance Dispute Settlement
formed by the Environmental Protection Administration.
Winter: first large NGO alliance, the Ecological Conservation
League, established.
1994 January: a group of ten Formosan sika deer released in K'enting
National Park in an attempt to reintroduce the deer to the
wild.
April: Guidelines for Recycling of General Containers
promulgated.
May: local vote in Kungliao revealed that over 96 per cent of
those voting (58.36 per cent voter turn out) oppose fourth nuclear
power plant.
May: students protest against sale of American nuclear equipment
outside the U.S. Taipei representative office and anti fourth
nuclear power plant demonstration of 30,000 people took place in
Taipei.
30 June: violent anti-nuclear demonstration. Fourth nuclear power
plant budget passed by Legislative Yuan that night.
June: Environmental Protection Administration signed an
environmental agreement with its Swedish equivalent.
August: Aviation Noise Control Methods for Areas around
Airports promulgated.
August: policy-guiding Committee on Global Change set up by
the Executive Yuan.
September: organization promoting a national vote on the fourth
nuclear power plant is established.
December: Environmental Impact Assessment Law promulgated.
1995 January: Programme for Phasing Out and Recycling Old Cars
amended and passed by the Executive Yuan.
June: demonstrations in front of the Legislative Yuan over pro-
posals to approve budgeting for Taiwan's fourth nuclear power
plant at Kungliao and upgrading of nuclear waste storage facilities
on Lanyti.
July: collection of air pollution prevention fees began.
11 July: a radiation leak from no. 1 reactor at the no. 2 nuclear
power plant.
August: First National Non-governmental Ecological Conser-

vation Conference held in Taipei.
October: Ground Subsidence Prevention Implementation Plan
passed.
1997 January: Taiwan signs agreement with North Korea to ship nu-
clear waste from Taiwan to North Korea.
Sulphur in heavy oil and diesel fuel, and lead in petrol to be
reduced.
1998 January: New Effluent Standards to come into force.

2000 70 per cent of Taiwan's solid waste to be incinerated.
2002 All nuclear waste to be removed from Lanyti.

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Cambridge University Press, School of Oriental and African Studies The China Quarterly

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Taiwan's Environment Today

Author(s): Richard Louis Edmonds

*I should like to express my thanks to Juju C. S. Wang (Ts'inghua University), Zhou Ju

? The China Quarterly, 1996

of this article is to describe the current state of Taiwan's environment, to

The State of the Environment

Rapid economic development has put a tremendous strain on Taiwan's

Deforestation and Land Shortages

Land shortages in Taiwan are critical. Taiwan's industrialists complain

There were substantial drops in the total area of broadleaf forest,

It is said that over 1,000 square kilometres of Taiwan's area suffers

Table 1: Annual Per Capita Precipitation Available for Water Supply

Polity Per capita cubic metres available

reservoir volume through siltation is quite serious with roughly the

A 1995 report presented by the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of

Lack of public awareness on how to conserve a recreational environ-

metres of reservoir water to agriculture in years when there is no drought

The extraction of ground water has led to subsidence problems, by as

26. "Fangzhi wuran xingjian shuiku" ("Prevent pollution construct reservoirs"),

extraction of ground water is linked to the general problem of an overall

The rise in cancer deaths from 57 to 75 per hundred thousand people

Water pollution. Water quality in Taiwan has deteriorated at one of the

29. Hwang, "Water resource in crisis," p. 12.

southern Taiwan are completely oxygen-dead. In places ground water is

Soil pollution. Problems of heavy metals, pesticides and PCBs in

Air pollution. Collection of data on dust fall and smoke concentration

toughened.51 Sulphur dioxide emissions tended to be high in the 1980s

a gas factory in Kaohsiung leaked chlorine for close to two hours on 8

Acidification. Acidification, commonly known as acid rain or some-

Noise pollution. As of the late 1980s there was no systematic surveying

do anything about it.64 Noise was found to be affecting people's ability to

After my stay in Taiwan as a student during 1969-70, I did not return

tors and it is planned for incinerators to process 70 per cent of solid

71. A Cleaner Home and a Better Image Abroad, p. 5.

Nature conservation was actually slower to start in Taiwan than on the

76. Juju Wang, Huanjingshehuixue de chufa, pp. 153-186.

Figure 1: Nature Conservation in Taiwan

FUJIAN Yangmingshan N.P: Keelung

P'enhu Penghu TAIWAN

-------- ---Mt. Ali ',." Yushan N.P.

A Wildlife sanctuary LanyO

Percentage of area devoted to pr

K'enting (land) 29.53 13.05 0.0

significant scenic, cultural/historical preservation, recreational and gen-

The Government's Coping Strategy

One political view of Taiwan's environmental dilemma is presented by

Both environmental policy and citizen protests have been slow to

95. Selya, "Water and air pollution in Taiwan," p. 197.

Figure 2: Environmental Work Within Government

Executive Yuan Evelutlion and Dispute

Environmontel Prot- National Institute of

.fn i Soil --Urarvtt:o:::.-.:u,

Environmental SOuth Environmental

Oty Government# Envi.ro l l !

kn~ro Amni NatonalPark

?,p~ C- GoverlnmentJ uOther Government Entities

Based upon Taiwan in Pursuit of Sustainable Development (T'aipei Environmental Protection

which should produce long-term positive results. A Green Mark for

The Social Impact

Table 3: Some Environmental Groups in Taiwan

The Animal Protection Association of ROC

Public health. Surveys undertaken in Taipei nursery schools have

Table 4: Power Demand in Taiwan