One bright and early morning as the harsh early September sun beats down on Taiwan's east coast, the swarthy, robust figure of Chiu Chin-he is already present at National Su-ao Marine and Fishery Senior Vocational School. The school's "sacred lake" has developed a bit of an algae problem due to inadequate care, and Chiu has been called out at the very start of the school year to offer up a few pearls of wisdom on the subject.

After finding himself looking at a natural lake unspoiled by mankind, the normally reticent Chiu is ecstatic, noting exuberantly that "there was a whole stand of the endangered willow species Salix kusanoi, which can grow both on land and in water. He elaborates that Salix kusanoi is indigenous only to Shuanglienpei and the banks of Mystery Lake in Nan-ao. In the days of the Japanese occupation it was commonly referred to as the "golden willow." Around the time of the Chinese lunar new year, the buds put forth golden flower spikes, and sometime after the new year they become platinum catkins that bounce about idyllically in the breeze. But sadly in the Shuanglienpei Incident two years ago, this unique species was ravaged by excavators, bringing it to the brink of extinction.

For the algae problem, Chiu suggests that they dig mud out from the center of the lake and stack it towards the banks in tiers, transforming the floor of the lake into a series of steps. For little more than the cost of hiring an excavator they can create an exciting ecological classroom teeming with water plants that thrive at varying depths.

As for the funds and labor necessary to maintain the lake after making the changes, Chiu insists that only a minimum of effort will be required to keep things going. The uniformity of the lake's depth created the conditions that allowed for the spread of the invasive Brazilian elodea (Egeria densa), but once the contour of the lake floor has been restructured, a variety of water plants will begin to flourish. "Puncture vine [Tribulus terrestris] grows in water two meters deep, while bog bulrushes [Schoenoplectus mucronatus robustus] need one meter-anything more than that and they're done for. Nature can take care of herself."

Five major types of aquatic plants (courtesy of Huang Chao-ching, TESRI)

Wetlands renaissance

Over the course of the last two years, parks, neighborhoods, schools, and coffee shops all over Ilan County have witnessed a surge in the creation of wildlife ponds. Chiu himself has advised more than ten such projects that have already reached completion, and even schools in faraway Taipei and Pingtung have solicited his expertise. "I'm happy to provide water plant seeds for school groups," Chiu says. He volunteers his knowledge and skills to assist the development of the ponds. His only condition is that those he helps must be willing to do their best to help rescue plants that face extinction.

For the past four or five years Chiu's reputation as Taiwan's indefatigable wetlands crusader has spread far and wide, but just how he came to occupy such a position was actually the result of happenstance.

Earlier on in life he ran a factory that made carvings, but was forced to shut it down in the 1990s, a time when many manufacturing operations were being relocated off Taiwan. Chiu eventually found work as mountain guide. Then, in 1996, he found himself traveling to Lake Sungluo, located at the upper reaches of the Nanshih River, to rescue researchers from the Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute who had been cut off due to the onslaught of Typhoon Herb. All in all, he ended up spending more than 40 days in the mountains, during which time he helped out with research and records. By the time he descended from the mountains, his interest in wetland ecology had been thoroughly whetted.

While working as a mountain guide for the Kavalan Mountain Climbing Association, Chiu served as a guide in an episode of Star Chinese Channel's "Taiwan Expedition" television program that introduced lakes in the Ilan area, and also guided high-school mountain climbing clubs. He frequently witnessed how ignorant and abusive people's attitudes towards nature could be, and seeking to rectify this lamentable state of affairs, he decided to start teaching at the newly opened Ilan Community University, figuring that if he could introduce Taiwan's lakes to people around the world via television, there was no reason why he couldn't help educate the misguided "adults" closer to home. Thus he began teaching a course-"The Beauty of Ilan's Lakes"-at the beginning of 2000.

His students loved trekking about Ilan's lakes. One individual became so enamored of the scenery in Ilan that he sold his house in Taoyuan in order to buy property in Ilan, an act that Chiu found extremely poignant. Encouraged by the popularity of his first class, the next term he organized a "Lake Ecology Study Group," providing a context for further wetland exploration.

In the course of communing with nature, Chiu and his students had ample opportunity to take note of the growing harm that economic expansion and human misconduct had wrought on Ilan's lakes and wetlands. When taking his students to survey Shuanglienpei at the end of 2001, he noticed that landowners in the area had begun clear their lakeside land for business and agricultural use. Excavators were tearing away at the lake ecology, discarding rare and precious wetland plants like so much rubbish. Chiu and the Society of Wilderness made an abortive appeal to the owners to halt the destruction of the area's botanical treasures, and the chain of rescue attempts that followed subsequently became known as the Shuanglienpei Incident.

From rescuing Shuanglienpei from disaster to promoting the development of ecology ponds, Chiu Chin-he has spared no effort in his tenacious campaign for wetland conservation. His dark complexion speaks to the many hours spent toiling in the sun, but for Chiu it has been a labor of love.

Natural treasures

Surrounded by mountains, Shuanglienpei is located in Ilan's Yuanshan Rural Township at an altitude of 500 meters above sea level. A barrier lake formed thousands of years ago, creating a setting that is both tranquil and beautiful. "What really makes Shuanglienpei so exceptional is that it is national-treasure-level wetland," says Chiu Chin-he. Within its 17-hectare domain reside more than 110 species of aquatic plants-all told, approximately a third of all Taiwan's native water plant species are represented at Shuanglienpei. Moreover, the plants are extremely rich and varied in their growth habits, including emergent, submerged, floating, floating-leaved, and bog plants (see illustration, p. 113). Add to that the fact that many of the resident species are extremely rare, and Shuanglienpei's importance to water plant scholars becomes self-evident: the region is a real-life water plant museum.

Chiu Chin-he explains that the uniqueness of Shuanglienpei's geography derives from altitude and also from its global latitude at the nexus between northern and southern plant species. Every year migratory birds flying south to escape the winter of places like Siberia, Japan, and Korea pass through Taiwan on their way to temperate Southeast Asia, thereby depositing the seeds of northern water plants; on their return, they propagate seeds of indigenous southern water plants from Southeast Asia. Further, the lake's size and depth are ideally suited to the myriad water plants. In terms of climate, the frost-free winters prevent less hardy plants from freezing to death, while in the summer, a layer of mist prevents more dominant species from receiving too much light, which would allow them to spread at the cost of other plants. These unique regional characteristics are what make the coexistence of these five types of water plants possible.

"Such a rich and diverse ecology was on the verge of being wiped out even before it could be properly studied and documented-all because of people's ignorance," laments Chiu. The Nationalist government's inappropriate land policies had marked Shuanglienpei as private property. Although for more than 20 years scholars had pointed to the region's significant biodiversity, without the necessary protective legislation, the government was completely unable to restrain landowners from spoiling its natural treasures. In 2001, when further planned building works threatened large areas of the lake banks and surrounding land, Chiu Chin-he and others decided to salvage the plants from the imminent danger of the bulldozers. After obtaining permission from the owners of a privately owned scenic area and family shrine on the outskirts of Ilan City named Chienhutang, they were able to transfer the plants from Shuanglienpei to the estate's ponds and fields.

The plants fared well at the new location, thanks to the care and attention of their keeper, Ilan Community University student Lin Kuo-yung. Moreover, the presence of the newly transplanted water plants at the venerable ancestral shrine attracted waterfowl and insects, turning the place into an organic paradise that won the admiration of visitors. In time, there were field trips from primary and secondary school groups, and even visits from academic institutes, such as Academia Sinica.

River club-rush (Schoenoplectus validus)

Spreading risk

His experience at Chienhutang made Chiu Chin-he realize that "turning a concrete pond into an ecological tourist site was something that society welcomed." Other wetlands in the Ilan region are constantly imperiled. For example, in the Wushiherchia wetland by the Tungshan River, when water management agencies renovated drainage channels they dug out large numbers of buttonbush (Cephalanthus naucleoides), and in the construction of the Toucheng section of the Taipei-Ilan Freeway, areas of wetland that were a habitat for Hygrophila lancea were filled in. The instances of civil engineering projects encroaching on farmland and wetlands truly are too numerous to mention. In light of the ubiquitous threat to wetland ecology, Chiu pressed harder for the creation of more ecology ponds, for, in his own words, "You've got to spread the risk very thinly when these precious plant genetic resources are at stake."

He turned first to family members, asking them to put aside a patch of their rice paddy for the cultivation of rare water plant species. Then, with the patronage of Uni-President Enterprises, the operators of 7-11 in Taiwan, Chiu established the Kavalan Wetland Plant Refuge, which holds activities to develop public consciousness of water plants and their proper care. At the same time, students at Ilan Community University were able to transmit what they had learned to others in their own schools and communities. Thanks to these efforts along with the superb preexisting model at Chienhutang, ecology ponds began to spring up everywhere in Ilan.

In Ilan, Chenhsiang community's organic farm is home to an ecology pond that has earned Chiu Chin-he's unstinting praise. The water is four meters deep, creating conditions which naturally regulate plant life in the pond, thereby reducing the need for human interference and supervision.

Seeds of success

One example that Chiu points to enthusiastically is an ecology pond built at Chenhsiang community's organic farm. The farm is operated by Liu Shu-hui, who is also chairwoman of the Natural Environmental Protection Foundation.

For reasons of practicality and safety, most ponds are designed to be on average 60 centimeters deep, or perhaps one or two meters at the most. However, from his observations of natural ponds, both in terms of their dimensions and the kinds of plants that grow at specific depths, Chiu Chin-he concluded that for optimum plant growth with minimal human intervention, a pond should be four meters deep at the deepest point. The pond at Chenhsiang was therefore constructed to these specifications.

Liu says that in nine months, 30 kinds of water plant have been successfully transplanted into the 3000-square-meter pond; another 20 rare species are still undergoing cultivation and observation. "Mr. Chiu's advice was really insightful," comments Liu. She has planted the various species at the appropriate depths, and has grown woody plants such as buttonbush and crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia subcostata) to protect the slopes. The successful results have borne out the validity of her approach. "Now that I've come to realize how precious and beautiful wetland plants are, whenever I hear of trees or water plants being cut down or uprooted, I immediately send people to try to salvage them," says Liu.

Besides fighting on behalf of the wetlands of Ilan, Chiu Chin-he has also sought to conserve wetlands in Taiwan's other regions. In recent years his organization, Society of Wilderness, has helped establish the Wanli Wetland Plant Refuge in northern Taiwan, and has also assisted the Tainan-based Wetlands Taiwan in opening up branches in three other locations. Chiu hopes that these separate organizations will coordinate with one another, sharing both resources and personnel.

Broadleaf cattial (Typha orientalis)

Future prospects

The Society of Wilderness has been mulling over the possibility of taking a more business-like approach to managing wetland resources in the future. Some of their ideas include eco-tourism and developing potential consumer applications for wetland plants such as food and medicine, thereby engendering financial incentives for wetland conservation. For example, in the Shihchao neighborhood near Chiaohsi many fish farming ponds have been abandoned in recent years, and National Ilan University is working with Chiu Chin-he in the hope of managing the ponds and the surrounding estuarine tidal marsh (low-lying land near the mouth of a river that is periodically flooded when rainwater in the river is backed up by the high tide) so as to rehabilitate them as a diverse habitat for plants and wildlife. "The first three months I couldn't get anything to grow because the soil there was too salty," Chiu explains. Later he mixed in outside soil with the local soil, and gradually plants began to sprout forth. At present, the ponds at Shihchao are still under observation; if things go well, then perhaps in the future he'll advise local fisherman and farmers on how to run an ecotourism business.

According to Lin Kuo-yung, after four to five years of activism, Ilan residents are now able to value the powder-puff tree (Barringtonia racemosa). Many communities are even choosing local seeds when greening their environment. Reflecting on growing concern over wetland conservation in society at large, Chiu says that although he does feel a sense of accomplishment, it pales in comparison to the speed at which wetland regions are being destroyed. His strength and that of his comrades in arms are, after all, limited, and what matters most is that others take up the fight.

A traditional family compound in Ilan City was converted into the "Bamboo Fence" Restaurant. In the front garden is a pond where frogs croak, birds chirp, and dragonflies dart to and fro. The figs that fall from Ficus virgata provide the natural fertilizer that nourishes the water plants.

Water snowflakes (Nymphoides indica)

Taiwan brandy bottle (Nuphar shimadai)

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)