Overview

Greening reduces carbon, and the more trees the better. However, a green group in northern Taiwan wants to thin the mangroves. What is going on?

From October 2020 to the end of April 2021, the Wild Bird Society of Taipei has cut down more than three hectares of Kandelia obovata, a type of mangrove, on the Luzhou Beach of Tamsui River. This seems contrary to environmental protection, but the reason behind the action is to maintain richer biodiversity.

This Tamsui River Luzhou Beach Restoration Project, which won the Fifth UMC Eco Echo Award, aims to save the homes of winter migrating birds. At low tide, the mudflat covers an area of about 67 hectares and is an important winter habitat for wading sandpipers.

However, since 2005, mangroves have been proliferating, and increased its area to more than 25 hectares by 2020. This has directly caused the habitat of sandpipers to disappear, and resulted inthe tens of thousands of black-bellied sandpipers that used to spend winter here every year dwindling to less than one thousand.

With the support of the UMC Eco Echo Award and in collaboration with the Tenth River Management Office, the Wild Bird Society of Taipei, which manages the Guandu Nature Park, started by cut down the mangroves that spread between 2019 to 2020, and that are less than 2 meters tall. Fallen seedlings were then removed, and experimental beach dredging projects on 13 hectares of beaches were carried out.

The wetland of national-level importance in the Tamsui River Basin covers an area of about 2,496 hectares, of which about 394 hectares is the Guandu Wetlands. It includes the Guandu Nature Park, Guandu Nature Reserve, Keelung River channel (the beach on the north bank of Shezi Island), and the Tamsui River channel (the beaches in Wugu, Luzhou, and south bank of Shezi Island). Within these areas, the highest diversity of birds can be found in Guandu Natural Park, followed by Luzhou Beach, and Wugu Beach, and these three areas also have the richest biodiversity.

However, Luzhou Beach, which is about ten kilometers away from the sea, is not affected by the waves. In addition, the Guandu Wetlands has remained undisturbed by humans since 1986 when it became a protected area. This has allowed a large number of mangroves to multiply, which has crept into the habitat of water birds. Moreover, hardened shorelines have also resulted in a shrunken river channel, higher water level, and increased flood risk. Therefore, the purpose of thinning the mangroves is to in fact achieve a higher-level environmental protection goal, namely biodiversity, which is multi-faceted and require more considerations.

Indeed, this is the original intention of UMC Eco Echo Award.

On Earth Day on April 22, 2016, UMC invested NT$30 million obtained from the first-ever carbon transaction approved by Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration to establish a special fund for environmental protection. It established the Eco-echo Ecological Conservation Hope Project. Supply chain partners subsequently joined, providing a total award of NT$3 million each year, making it the highest award for ecological conservation in Taiwan. In adherence to its vision of "People-oriented, Environmental Symbiosis, and Social Prosperity," UMC is committed to promoting the spirit of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) sustainability. The Eco Echo Award not only hopes to enhance public understanding of ecological conservation, it also highlights the need for enterprises to think further and comprehensively about how to give back to the environment  through their ESG work.

In the past six years, the Eco Echo Award has supported 39 large-scale ecological conservation projects and youth environmental initiatives. The award-winning projects addresses a wide spectrum of environmental and ecological concerns, including the conservation of Formosan macaques, conservation of marine corals, butterfly migration, wild bird collisions with glass windows, and rural greening. The winners have taken practical action to conserve biodiversity, whether in the mountains or oceans, urban or natural areas.

The Luzhou Beach Restoration Project is the epitome of biodiversity. The mangroves growing on the coast of the estuary have particularly strong roots to resist the sweeping tidal waves. They are resilient against coastal wind and sand, and protect the coast from tides. In addition, they form a rich estuarine wetland ecosystem of mudskippers and fiddler crabs, and also serve as an important relay station for resident and migratory birds.

Nevertheless, excessive growth of the mangroves will destroy the habitat of birds. Therefore, to preserve vibrant biodiversity, no single species can be allowed to dominate.

This project is also coupled with bird monitoring surveys to document the impact on birds after thinning the mangroves. A total of 19 bird surveys were conducted in the Guandu Wetlands, where a total of 4,340 counts of 81 species of 29 families of birds were recorded. A total of 19 bird surveys were conducted in Luzhou, where a total of 3,922 counts of 71 species of 27 families of birds were recorded. A total of 19 bird surveys were conducted in Wugu in Luzhou, where 81 species of 29 families of birds were recorded (the largest numbers recorded in the year are used as representative numbers above). The disturbances caused by the restoration and dredging works may temporarily affect the habitats of the birds. Therefore, changes of the birds and the beach project implementation will continue to be monitored. It is hoped that after the works have settled, the water birds will come with the tide and monsoon, and find a safe haven here.

In addition, the Wild Bird Society of Taipei also uses Guandu Nature Park as a base to carry out water bird habitat restoration education and promotion activities. Elementary schools in the three areas have been invited to become key schools in the promotion of wetland and water bird conservation, and the teachers and students are led to focus on wetland conservation and water bird protection issues. In 2021, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, online courses were planned. Three sets of campus promotion courses were developed so that teachers can use the teaching videos in their classrooms. As of 2021, the videos were used in 21 lower elementary classes, 24 middle elementary classes, and 22 upper elementary classes, totaling 67 classes

For more exciting Eco Echo Award programs, please visit

https://ecoechoaward.com/

Volunteers thinning out the Kandelia obovata mangroves.

Promoting wetland and waterbird protection in schools. Through games, the students experience the situations that migratory birds face during the migration process.