Community protected
When a tropical depression inundated central and southern Taiwan with several days of heavy rains in late August 2018, Caoling Geopark didn’t suffer as much flooding as lower elevations, but the wind and rain did knock down trees and boulders. The day before we arrived, a team of community residents reopened the road themselves by clearing the rocks and trees.
The Caoling Geopark has been a grassroots effort from the start.
Caoling was a major scenic destination in the 1980s, but in the immediate aftermath of 1999’s Jiji Earthquake, tourism to the area declined sharply, and the local economy with it. Fortunately, the earthquake-created “flying mountain” and barrier lake attracted the attention of geologists and the general public, sparking a new wave of tourism.
With geoparks becoming something of an international trend in the early 2000s, and residents recognizing that their area’s diverse landscape met the criteria for such a park, the community petitioned the government to create Taiwan’s first “citizen-proposed, government-approved” geopark.
Geoparks have four core values: landscape conservation, environmental education, geotourism, and community participation. Wang Wen-cheng, a professor in the Department of Geography at National Taiwan Normal University, says that geoparks really stress local participation. “Community participation and conservation are the keys to success.”
Caoling residents’ active participation in the conservation of Caoling’s geology and topography, and their education of their children and grandchildren about the environment, have created a thriving symbiosis with the park.
Jason Cheng leads us up the 45-degree slope of the Great Steep Wall to see fractures in the rock.