For many years now, the economy has been the engine of our development, and it has been absorbing most of our resources. To the people of Taiwan, who have struggled to bring about an economic miracle despite a lack of resources, ecological conservation may sound grand, but it pales in comparison with the importance of medicine, social welfare, education, culture--or even pollution and environmental hazards, which, despite being lumped with conservation as environmental issues, more directly affect people's lives. As a result, ecological conservation's chances of being a focus of attention are smaller than small.

Besides foreign wildlife, ecology in Taiwan itself is often sacrificed at the altar of economic considerations. Planned for seven years, the Kuantu Preserve can't get final designation amid protest that it is "the last area available for commercial development in greater Taipei."

"We shout all day about ecological preservation, but no one listens" is the common complaint of ecological scholars and activists. Indeed, from the controversy over rhino horns to those over the orangutan and the black-faced spoonbill, if foreigners weren't lending a hand, they were the ones whose protest originally attracted the media reports that brought the issue to people's attention in the first place.

For a Taiwan growing ever more urban and industrial, natural preserves are extremely important. Do we need foreigners to tell us this? The photo shows birdwatchers at the mouth of the Tsengwen River.

Conservation is a new concept even abroad, and most people don't understand its importance. You can say, how could people be bothered with these matters before when they were so poor? But Taiwan's affluence didn't arrive overnight. As scholars see it, the problem is simple: Chinese put too much importance on economic development and correspondingly too little on ecological education. As a result, no one understands that over the long term ecological preservation will actually improve people's living conditions.

With stagnation at home and with outsiders who share concerns about these problems, conservationists have had no choice but to draw on outside support.

Hoping to save the black-faced spoonbill from extinction, the R.O.C. Wild Bird Society has exhausted itself protesting plans to make the spoonbill's habitat in Chiku Rural Township of Tainan County the site of an industrial park. Yet not many people care much about the birds or have any understanding of the matter.

The attitude of the Tainan County government is that the county is big: The birds can go anywhere-- why must it be the Chiku Industrial Park? Ecologists argue that industry hasn't made full use of the land it has already been allotted. Why must an industrial zone be set up here, on this irreplaceable habitat of birds?

The Wild Bird Society was forced to write letters requesting support from bird organizations all around the world before the question of a home for the black-faced spoonbill finally came to the attention of Premier Hao. "If it weren't for that," says an official of the Council of Agriculture," Tainan County would have already developed the Chiku Industrial Park."

Hsiao Tai-chi, an associate researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Academia Sinica, contends that there's nothing wrong with relying on this support from abroad for conservation efforts. Our economic and political situation has reached stability and balance, and in this period many government policies have been worked out cooperatively. For both the people and the government, conservation is a new realm, and it's very difficult to smash the status quo and fight for resources. At such a time, it might be well advised to hear different voices.

Besides shaking things up, media reports and public debate also educate people. Now, besides the Council of Agriculture, which is responsible for ecological matters, other government units like customs, which heads up anti-smuggling efforts, the Department of Health, which oversees Chinese medicine, and even those responsible for foreign trade will all be alerted that conservation is an international matter of great importance.

Ecological issues transcend national boundaries.

Because it once helped the Environmental Investigation Agency to hold a press conference in Taiwan, the Green Consumer Foundation was once unfairly accused of "conspiring with outsiders." In reality, international conservation groups commonly provide mutual support. Yet while international interference can be of benefit, it might backfire if used improperly, making people resentful. Because there was no meeting of minds over the rhino incident, a chance for "face-to-face communication" turned into a melee of trade boycotts and wounded honor.

As political scientist Steve Bih-rong Liu sees it, because of changing international circumstances, such problems as the drug trade and environmental protection cannot be resolved in one country or one place. The world is growing smaller. National and regional links are tightening. If one country's problems affect the world ecology, other countries certainly have a right to make their opinions known--and even show up to negotiate.

Hence, if the interference involves what has been covered in international treaties or if certain principles and procedures are respected--so strong countries don't place unreasonable demands on weak ones or adopt an attitude of racial superiority--all nations will begin to accept a certain amount of "outside interference."

But some are shouting foul about these ecological incidents. Why is it, they complain, always "the developed countries telling us what to do?" Jay Fang, president of the Green Consumer Foundation, says we can of course tell other nations to do ecological conservation if we so desire. Today, we ought to declare that we won't buy rhino horns, telling African countries, "We're not buying them; don't illegally hunt them any more."

In reality, if an environmental situation is serious enough to engender common international concern, such as the hole in the ozone layer for which the nations of the world have signed a pact reducing consumption of fluorocarbons, we have no choice but to go along. In other cases, with or without outside support, we've got to shoulder responsibility if conservation efforts here are to be successful. Relying on outsiders is too passive.

But as Liu says, just as the focus of international attention changes so too will international interference in environmental matters increase. "It's a tragedy when others have to tell you about your own problems," Fang stresses. It doesn't matter if the outsiders are diplomatic or boorish--in either case it shows that we have lost the ability to solve problems ourselves and that we need outsiders to come and tell us what to do. "If we do it well ourselves," he says, "there simply won't be cause for outside interference."

People joke that if Taipei's Kuantu Preserve, which has been planned for seven or eight years, had been the beneficiary of a little outside interference, then perhaps the sanctuary, the first for migratory birds near an urban area in Taiwan, might have been built long ago. Will we learn from England, the birthplace of the industrial revolution, where large tracks of green land were nonetheless preserved in central London? Will it teach us the importance of parks to a city like Taipei? If there really is such a day, the rhino incident may just be the start of things.

[Picture Caption]

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The preservation of the habitat of the black-faced sponbill only came to the attention of local people after a letter writing campaign by bird associations around the world. (photo by Cheng Yuan-ching)

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For a Taiwan growing ever more urban and industrial, natural preserves are extremely important. Do we need foreigners to tell us this? The photo shows birdwatchers at the mouth of the Tsengwen River.