When Lin Yi-hou, now executive secretary of the Construction and Planning Administration, was the director of Kenting National Park, what he feared most was the holidays.

It was the Mid-Autumn Festival in particular that gave him the heebie-jeebies.

He recalls that every year on that day tens of thousands of people would swarm to the Kenting seashore, where their shadows would flicker across the silvery sands under the soft light of the full moon. What made such a mess was that these inebriates of nature weren't there to enjoy the moon so much as to have barbecues and set off fireworks. Park personnel would be kept busy through the night admonishing the visitors to behave, but to little avail, vastly outnumbered as they were.

The next day the crowds of people were replaced by piles of trash, and the sugary white beaches had changed color, littered with bits of exploded firecrackers that were impossible to clean up.

Smiling through their tears, park personnel could only hope that at future Mid-Autumn Festivals the island would be hit by a typhoon like the one that struck two years ago. It would be a relief....

The workers at other parks probably wish the same. Because just when the hordes are descending on Kenting, fleets of tour buses are cruising toward Taroko Gorge, creating a traffic snarl comparable to the worst of Taipei's, while the trails in Yu Shan National Park are inundated with hikers....

In principle, the R.O.C.'s national parks are charged with the functions of conservation, education, research and recreation, among which the most important is conservation--preserving the natural state of the area for future generations.

Unfortunately, the actual situation is quite different. The number of scenic and recreational areas on the island is inadequate, and the increase in the population's per capita income and in leisure time during recent years has placed a heavy burden on the park system.

"It's due to our special circumstances," says Liu Chih-cheng, a landscape designer who has hiked through many national parks in other countries. He points out that the R.O.C.'s national parks were set up rather late, after they had already become popular tourist areas, unlike many parks overseas, which were established in unused "wastelands."

Large numbers of visitors will naturally have an adverse effect on the environment, but the most critical factor is still the fact that Chinese people "haven't set up norms for behavior as tourists outdoors," as a park policeman puts it. Visitors to Kenting invariably want to eat roast bird on a spit; when they go to Yangming Shan it's for chickens raised in the wild.

Hikers getting ready to head back down the mountain dump whatever they can on the top to avoid lugging it back down. People make "pit stops" by the side of the trail. Huang Wen-ch'ing, director of the recreation department at Taroko Gorge National Park, found a pile of trash beside a climbers' hut more than three feet high.

Each national park spends at least NT$2 million a year on litter removal, and the activities they hold most frequently are probably "mountain cleanups." No wonder some people call the rangers sanitation workers in jest.

"Behavior like that is not just a problem of persuasion or enforcement by park authorities," says Lin Yi-hou. He believes it's a question of environmental education among the populace as a whole.

Ch'en Yu-feng, director of conservation at Yu Shan National Park, agrees. He says that the problem stems from the fact that the general public, as a victim of pollution, is well aware of the need for "environmental protection," but that conservation is not so directly related to its interests. People have a hard time understanding why the experts call so forcefully for the protection of an area that seems to be nothing more than a place with trees.

Yellowstone National Park in the United States is an example of a park that has been turned into a kind of Disneyland and sacrificed to the public. But the U.S. has more than 300 national parks, while the R.O.C., even with the imminent addition of Orchid Island National Park, will have just five. What's more, it has no other areas that could foreseeably be turned into national parks. So it can't afford "sacrifices."

In fact, as a precaution, the National Parks Law stipulated right from the beginning that the territory of the parks could be classified into five areas--general control, recreation, historical preservation, special management, and ecological protection--each entailing different rules and regulations.

This system was seen as the best way to reconcile the goals of recreation and conservation, but problems of execution soon cropped up. As much as one fifth of Yangming Shan National Park consists of privately owned land, and much of the Yu Shan and Taroko parks falls under the jurisdiction of the Forestry Bureau and National Taiwan University.

Due to the press of visitors, together with unresolved jurisdictional problems, "the national parks have always been somewhat misdirected and never really gained their bearings," says a forestry professor at National Taiwan University who worked on planning the parks. He believes it is high time to slow down and reflect on where they are headed.

To relieve the pressure from too many visitors, the parks have constantly been opening new areas to the public--Taroko, the newest park, the same as Kenting, the oldest. When park headquarters at Yangming Shan recently announced its plan to open up three new recreational areas, the Water Sources Management Commission protested, fearing that nearby water sources would be contaminated.

"Pressure from too many visitors is a fact, and their impact on the environment should be studied," says a conservationist who wishes to remain nameless. "The solution, though, is to set up an environmental monitoring system and not to open more areas to the public."

An environmental monitoring system entails performing a complete survey of the park environment to understand the current status of the ecology and then setting up appropriate plans and regulations within those parameters. It's a long and involved process that requires a great deal of time and effort.

In the meantime, the reader can ponder this thought: if visitors wouldn't wander off the trails, if they'd stand still when they saw an animal, if they'd sniff the flowers instead of plucking them... then there wouldn't be any need to restrict them from areas at all.

[Picture Caption]

The Department of Motor Vehicles? A parking lot? Neither. It's 200 tour buses packed into a national park. (photo courtesy of Kenting National Park Administration).

Except for members of academic or research organizations who have obtained permission from park authorities, no one is allowed to enter ecological protection areas. (photo by Arthur Cheng)

National parks were established to preserve areas in their natural state and to protect them against incursions by man.

Another beer house, another wild chicken restaurant--the unlicensed buildings in Yangming Shan National Park come in all types.

Yosemite is one of the parks in the U.S. that have been "sacrificed" to tourists. (photo by Liu Chih-cheng)

Allowing animals to live in the wild undisturbed by man can be considered the first step to success in running a national park. Shown here is Kruger National Park in South Africa. (Above) Many parks require that visitors to protected areas be accompanied by a guide. (photo by Arthur Cheng)

Yu Shan is a Mecca for climbers. Thanks to its protection by park authorities they can enjoy the thrill of conquering its unspoiled peak forever.

Except for members of academic or research organizations who have obtained permission from park authorities, no one is allowed to enter ecological protection areas. （photo by Arthur Cheng）

Another beer house, another wild chicken restaurant--the unlicensed buildings in Yangming Shan National Park come in all types.

Yosemite is one of the parks in the U.S. that have been "sacrificed" to tourists. （photo by Liu Chih-cheng）

National parks were established to preserve areas in their natural state and to protect them against incursions by man.

Allowing animals to live in the wild undisturbed by man can be considered the first step to success in running a national park. Shown here is Kruger National Park in South Africa.

Many parks require that visitors to protected areas be accompanied by a guide. （photo by Arthur.

Yu Shan is a Mecca for climbers. Thanks to its protection by park authorities they can enjoy the thrill of conquering its unspoiled peak forever.