Shanmei is located to the south of Alishan, and nearly all of the 180 households in the village are Tsao aborigines. The Tsao originally lived high in the mountains, at 2000 meters. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, in order to make rule easier, they forced the aborigines to migrate down the mountains. Some moved to what is now Shanmei.

Early on, travel to Shanmei was extremely inconvenient--eight hours walking to the nearest road. Twenty years ago, as part of rural electrification, the whole village spent months putting up ranks of poles for power lines, and only then could the power lines be moved in from more than ten kilometers away.

However, it was the very inconvenience of contact with the outside world that allowed the preservation of the green hills and blue waters.

High mountains, clear water, slithering fish, skittering shrimp: Shanmeiis primarily situated on a slope at about 500 meters above sea level. The junction of the Tsengwen River and its tributary the Tanayiku River is just nearby. The area is densely packed with trees, with a pervasive sense of nature; the clear, sweet river water is the main source of water for drinking and irrigation for the villagers.

The ku fish produced by the river and shrimp are special local products, fresh and delicious. Besides being consumed at ordinary daily meals, they are de rigueur at the meals the villagers always give each time a visitor comes.

Chuang Ching-hui, the former chairman of the Alishan Township Assembly, descibes how many fish and shrimp there were in days gone by: "If you just used one hand to stop up the space between two rocks, then stuck the other one in you could grab a ku. And the river was even more full of shrimp." As for animals: "When you slept out at night by the river bank, the animals would start coming as soon as you lit a fire. There were so many flying squirrels and it got so noisy that you had to think of a way to shoo them away."

Such clean and clear water and gorgeous mountain forest made up an environment of which the villagers of Shanmei could be proud, and was the place where they grew up.

In order to improve the problem of inaccessibility and raise the quality of life, and to make transport of mountain agricultural products easier, the Alishan industrial road as well as a link between Laitou and Shanmei were opened, after which travel was made much more convenient for the villagers.

However, after traffic became fast and easy, destruction followed in its wake. Although Shanmei was nominally a Class A aboriginal protected area, it could not escape its fate.

Inviting trouble: As industry developed and the surrounding environment gradually became polluted, it became nearly impossible to find delicious fresh water fish and shrimp in low-lying areas. Thus the clean, ku-producing upstream portion of the Tsengwen River and its tributary the Tanayiku River became coveted by poachers. They would usually sneak in, electrocuting the fish and shrimp, until neither could much be seen. Poisons left in the water damaged the safety of the drinking water.

Seeing the situation deteriorating, with the creatures of the river facing extinction, Township Assembly Vice Speaker Wen Ying-feng, Mayor Fang Cheng-yi, Presbyterian Church Rev. Kao Cheng-sheng, and Shanmei Community Board Chairman An Sheng-chi raised a call for help. Immediately enthusiastic people took action to save the river.

First everyone talked about the objectives in protecting the river and concrete steps, and "we immediately discovered that because of the absence of any previous conservation experience, we had no idea where to start," says Wen, recalling the difficulties of getting rolling. Later they took several trips to the Yushan and Yangmingshan national parks, and went also to the Chihpen Hot Springs to ask for advice, only then getting some preliminary ideas.

Gifts to the land, collective protection: They thought to copy the methods of the national parks, and map out protected areas which would be strictly monitored. But they ran into problems with traditional culture.

Wen Ying-feng explains the Tsao were originally an agricultural and fishing people. Each family had its particular fishing and hunting area, and one could only catch fish or animals in one's own designated area. If someone pursued an animal from his own territory and transgressed another territory, they would have to give a certain part of the meat of the hunted animal to the neighboring family as a gift, to express that he had not intentionally crossed over.

After being forced to their current site by the Japanese, each family carved out its own fishing and hunting zone in the nearby mountains and rivers, which have continued to the present. Later the government undertook a land assessment, but didn't bother with the rivers; so the idea that the rivers are the common property of the whole people could never fit this place.

Because the people here place great emphasis on the territory that belongs to them, it would take a great deal of effort to get the various families to give up this traditional birthright. And with all things still being the prerogative of the head of the family, the older people became the major targets of discussions.

At first, the relatively conservative elders stuck to the idea of each managing his own part of the river. But as they saw that the problem of poisoning and electrocution of fish and shrimp did not take a turn for the better, and they couldn't improve things on their own, after earnest persuasion from Wen and others, the heads of each household finally agreed to contribute their hunting and fishing areas.

The tens of families who planted bamboo shoots in the designated protected area also all voluntarily gave up their rights to use the land and joined the conservation ranks, even going without compensation for the plants then in the ground.

To commemorate these breakthroughs, the village slaughtered a pig and gave a feast in line with traditional custom, as a type of spiritual compensation.

Picking up the protective umbrella: After getting the support of the elders, they held a general village meeting. In September 1989 the Shanmei Village Environmental Protection Association was formed, and an organizational platform passed setting out the protected area and the laws and penalties. Further, starting out from self-restraint of the villagers, a "self-governing agreement" was made, with all the villagers promising to respect it; they selected a chairman, the Reverend Kao Cheng-sheng, to handle various affairs.

The organizational platform clearly states that corporations should be excluded from entering. Any changes or matters must be approved by discussion and agreement of the whole village, and no individual can make any decision alone. Moreover, any future development or profits would be commonly owned and enjoyed by all villagers.

But why only protect the Tanayiku River and not the upstream portion of the Tsengwen River? Kao Cheng-sheng explains that the association had originally thought to include the entire upstream portion of the Tsengwen River. But later it was discovered that it was only after each occasion when the downstream fish died off because of the effects of poisons poured into the upstream part of the river that someone would set off in search of the offenders, but because the mountain roads are remote, it would always be impossible to catch them. So in the end it was best just to reduce the proposed scope. and for the time being to only protect the Tanayiku. Later, when results are clearly visible, alliances can be formed with the more upstream villages of Lichia, Hsinmei, Tapang and Tefuye to create an even larger protected area.

At present the protected area stretches 15 kilometers from the headwaters of the Tanayiku to the Tsengwen River, with a breadth of five kilometers in each direction from the center of the stream. The trees, plants and primitive forests therein cannot be cut down or removed; hunting or capture of local goats, monkeys, bats, squirrels, birds, muntjacs or insects is not permitted; and no river life, including fish, shrimp or crabs, is to be caught or killed by any means whatsoever.

Besides prohibiting the killing or catching of animals and the cutting of vegetation, even the small work paths have been closed, in hopes that plant and animal life can flourish without any outside interference.

Watching the river under the moonlight: According to the common agreement recognized by the whole village, the Tanayiku River is to be protected and maintained by all of the villagers in common. In order to achieve the goal of protection, they have set up a simple but effecttive system.

During the day, because the composition of the population in the mountain area is simple, and everybody knows everybody else, it is easy for the villagers to discover any ill-intentioned interloper. "Nightime is the main focus of preventing criminal behavior," says Kao Cheng-sheng.

They use a system of shifts to send people out to patrol the river banks. All healthy males from 18 to 50 must take their turn, one per night. But most villagers go out with friends, on the one hand killing some otherwise uneventful time and on the other lending a hand in raising the alarm if any intruders are met. Today it has already evolved into a buddy system, with one in a simple tent keeping an eye on the main paths and the other patrolling the banks. "This type of organization really builds fellow-feeling among the villagers," says Wen Ying-feng.

Each evening as night arrives you can see two or three villagers heading out toward the Tanayiku River. Sometimes family members or girlfriends will go along to help them pass the night.

As for young people studying outside the village, each time there is a vacation they go out in units of "neighborhoods" to pick up garbage and clean up the environment along the roads and riverbanks.

The association has also selected a three-member oversight committee, to take responsibility for checking up on how these tasks are going.

Catching perpetrators: Persistent effort has shown results in preventing the poisoning or electrocution of fish and shrimp; on three separate occasions people fishing privately have been caught. The first case was a young person from the village. He worked outside the village, and on vacation went to the river, but couldn't catch any fish, so, having an experimental bent, he thought he would give electrocuting the fish a try. But he was caught by the patrol, and on the basis of the self-governing agreement was immediately fined NT$100,000 and wrote a confession. Kao Cheng-sheng recalls that, after this, the villagers were able to reach an even more solid consensus to work together to protect the river. The fine was placed in a special account for use in village emergencies.

Last December, four "electric fishermen" from Taichung entered the area in a pickup truck. They were discovered by a patrol, of whom one man stayed behind to keep an eye on them and the other went back to spread the alarm. When the villagers hurried to the scene, they discovered that 70 or 80 kilos of fish and shrimp had already been loaded into long coolers packed with ice in the pickup. Each of the men was fully equipped with electric prod, waterproof lamp, waterproof leggings and safety boots, the very model of the decked-out professional electric fisherman. Because the self-governing agreement did not cover them, they were sent off to the police for prosecution.

The third intruder was a young person from Chungpu Rural Township in Chiayi County. He stole only a large bowl of fresh water shrimp, but was still sent off to the police.

For the average angler who might want to venture into the protected area, besides warning signs, the villagers are ready to exhaustively explain why fishing is prohibited. Fortunately, most visitors can understand, and no confrontations have occurred.

Refusing outside inducements: When word of the excellent preservation work being done in Shanmei Village got out, this piqued the interest of many corporations in this unspoiled stretch. They hoped to invest in developing recreational facilities to attract tourists.

Assembly Vice Speaker Wen Ying-feng takes one case: A Mr.Teng from the Long Tou Mountain Villas along the Alishan road suggested that the protected area be made into an educational area. The boss of the Alishan Play World hoped to build a cable car to go directly from the Alishan road to the protected area.

The conditions offered for joint development were generous and appealing, but the people of Shanmei Village kept a longer term view. They saw that the examples of other aboriginal areas which had been developed, like Wulai in Taipei County, or Tungpu and Lushan in Nantou County, were less than ideal. They also worried that too many visitors would destroy the environment, completely undoing the reason for having the protected area to begin with.

Wen Ying-feng often spreads the idea that "land is wealth," and that if you only look to short term profits, and sell off the land, you still wouldn't have enough money to do anything down in the populated plains. When the money was all gone, and you returned to the mountains, there would be no place to rest your head; even if there was still a little something left, it wouldn't be the best.

He also tells the villagers that people say that cooperation can bring job opportunities, but these are at most jobs at the level of janitors, kitchen help or folk dance performers, with no real benefit for the future development of either the individual or the village.

There have been several cases of households which have taken down payments, but after the association got wind of it, Kao and Wen would bring the elders to the house to talk them out of selling. In the end they personally returned the money themselves, in order to resolve the danger of falling one house at a time.

Wen Ying-feng says, his tone of voice changing, that "we do not completely reject cooperation with outsiders, but hope we can talk about it only after reaching the level at which cooperation would be possible." He says that the Association has some money and many talented people; future cooperation should be led by the Association, only being possible after agreement at a public meeting of the whole village, and only by being undertaken in line with the Association's founding principles.

A modern Shangri-la: Talking about the current main foci of the Association, Kao Cheng-sheng states that, placing equal emphasis on preservation and sight-seeing, voluntary labor has been mobilized to open a three kilometer path along the outside edge of the protected area. But unless one is doing research or has some other special reason, outsiders are not permitted. In the future, with the agreement of the entire village, the outer boundary could be opened up to hikers or for soaking up the ambience at appropriate times and in limited numbers.

The drops and crevices in this 15-kilometer area are quite large. At present there are two groups of monkeys active deep in the interior, and you can often hear their voices.

As for the ku in the river, because their natural enemy the eel has disappeared with poisoning and electrocution, they are now rapidly flourishing in a threat-free environment. Now by the side of the stream the sight that greets the eyes is of groups of fish and shrimp. There are fish after fish searching for lichen to eat or cavorting about in the water revealing their silver bellies which shine in the sunlight--it is truly beautiful; fresh water shrimp are also crowded into the stream.

Kao Cheng-sheng estimates that the situation of the fish and shrimp will return to former levels in about two years. In order to maintain ecological balance, when the number of fish reaches a certain level, visitors will be allowed to fish for adult fish and adult shrimp in sections of the river close to trails, but catching of young fish and shrimp will still be prohibited.

Although there is no legal foundation for these actions, they have been acknowledged as correct by most people, and have already laid the foundation for a sound environmental order in Shanmei.

Repopulation: As various aboriginal areas declare themselves open for development, Shanmei is an exception. Its way of doing things not only protects the residential area, but it also gives the whole village some consensus and common objective. At the same time, even as most aboriginal villages are suffering rapid population outmigration, the people of Shanmei are gradually returning. Altogether Shanmei has about 400 adults. In the past about two fifths went outside the village to work; if you subtract the number in the civil service, there were about 100 people who had left the village for outside employment.

From the establishment of the Association in 1989 to today, with the propogation of the idea that "one should take care of one's own land oneself" by Kao Cheng-sheng and the mapping out of a beautiful blueprint for the future, already about 40 people have returned to take care of their own land. Today most plant high-value cash crops like tea, bamboo shoots and betel nuts in the protected area.

It is-estimated that in three years the first steps in construction of rest facilities and plant and animal rehabilitation can be completed. At that time the goal of equal weight being given to both protection and sight-seeing can be realized, so that inevitably there will be a need for more manpower to come in. Thus the people of the village have agreed that three years down the road, all those working outside the village--with the exception of civil servants--should return. You could say this was a bonus "byproduct" in reward for all their efforts.

[Picture Caption]

The movement to protect the river gives the ku fish asafe environment in which to grow.

Relying on the cooperative efforts of the villagers, preventive measures have already stopped poachers from electrocuting and poisoning the fish and destroying the environment.

The people of Shanmei protect the whole environment of the Tanayiku River.

Young people studying outside the village take advantage of vacations to return and help in clean-up work. Under the hot sun, the student in the middle resorts to a light-colored wig to block the sun.

Beautiful perennials grow along the riverside paths.

Bamboo tables and wooden chairs, made from local materials, are already the focus of villagers' leisure time.

The water in the river is a playground for the young people of the village.

In the protected area, butterflies dance and aren't afraid of being caught in mankind's nest.

These ku fish, offered a new lease on life, are only about seven or eight centimeters, but will grow to 20 or so in about a year.

Relying on the cooperative efforts of the villagers, preventive measures have already stopped poachers from electrocuting and poisoning the fish and destroying the environment.

The people of Shanmei protect the whole environment of the Tanayiku River.

Young people studying outside the village take advantage of vacations to return and help in clean-up work. Under the hot sun, the student in the middle resorts to a light-colored wig to block the sun.

Beautiful perennials grow along the riverside paths.

Bamboo tables and wooden chairs, made from local materials, are already the focus of villagers' leisure time.

The water in the river is a playground for the young people of the village.

In the protected area, butterflies dance and aren't afraid of being caught in mankind's nest.

These ku fish, offered a new lease on life, are only about seven or eight centimeters, but will grow to 20 or so in about a year.