Astroviolin ê Búlo̍k

The State of Taiwan's Forests

-- Magazine < Taiwan Review > Jan., 2008

Nearly 60 percent of Taiwan is covered by forests, according to a government forest resource and land use survey. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)

Publication Date：01/01/2008

By line：STEVEN CROOK

Efforts to protect Taiwan's woodlands and replant areas previously cleared of trees are helping to chip away at escalating carbon dioxide emissions.

On July 7 last year, during the Live Earth series of worldwide concerts, Al Gore--the former US vice president, star of the Academy Award-winning documentary film An Inconvenient Truth and, most recently, Nobel laureate--asked audience members and television viewers to make a seven-point pledge to take specific action to counter climate change. The sixth point required those taking the pledge "To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests."

Forests are useful tools in the battle against global warming because they absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas. Trees take in carbon dioxide and retain the carbon while releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. Taiwan is a major producer of several types of greenhouse gas, and the country's carbon dioxide emissions more than doubled from 112 million tons in 1990 to 262 million tons in 2005. According to the International Energy Agency, Taiwan emitted the world's 18th-highest amount of carbon dioxide per capita in 2004.

In Taiwan, efforts to protect existing forests and to reforest areas previously cleared of trees predate climate-change concerns. When describing the reasoning behind the government's forestry policies, Wu Shwu-hwa of the Council of Agriculture's Forestry Bureau barely mentions global warming. Nonetheless, Taiwan's forestry experts have been examining the carbon-sequestration role of the country's forests since at least 2001. In November 2002, the Council of Agriculture's Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TFRI) hosted the International Symposium on Forest Carbon Sequestration and Monitoring.

Taiwan is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and at first glance there seem to be few empty spaces where more trees can be planted. However, considering that almost every corner of the lowlands is used for agriculture, housing or industry, and that the camphor trade of the 18th and 19th centuries led to a massive felling of trees in the foothills, the island still retains a remarkable amount of forest.

In recent decades, the government has been able to expand tree cover. The central government's Second Survey of Forest Resources and Land Use, conducted between 1973 and 1977, found that 50 percent of Taiwan's land area was covered by trees. By the time the Third Survey was completed in 1995, this had increased to 58.5 percent. More than half of Taiwan's forests primarily contain hardwood trees, just more than a fifth contain conifers and another fifth contain mixed hardwood and conifers. The remaining forested area contains mostly bamboo.

Wu, the public relations chief of the Forestry Bureau, says that since 1995, the percentage of the country's total tree cover has barely changed. "Landslides or fires sometimes destroy high mountain forests, and recent lowland afforestation projects have only added a small amount to the total," she explains. "Now, the bureau emphasizes forest fire prevention and reducing the illegal cultivation of fruit, tea, vegetables and betel nuts on forested land."

International Trend

The recovery and stabilization of Taiwan's forests since the early 1970s conforms to an international trend only identified in recent years. While the forests of Indonesia, the Philippines, Nigeria and some other countries are rapidly shrinking, tree cover in the world's wealthier nations has held steady or is increasing, according to Returning Forests Analyzed with the Forest Identity, a report published in November 2006 by the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.

This landslide area in Hsinchu County is covered with woven mats as part of the reforestation process. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)

"Among 50 nations with extensive forests reported in the Food and Agriculture Organization's comprehensive Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005," the report's authors write in the introduction, "no nation where annual per capita GDP exceeded US$4,600 had a negative rate of growing stock change." Growing stock means trees large enough to be used commercially as timber, even if there is no intention of felling them for sale. In other words, none of the more affluent countries surveyed had declining forest cover.

Taiwan, with a per capita GDP of US$16,030 in 2006, was not one of the 50 nations included in the assessment.

Critics of the Returning Forests report point out that it is based on statistics provided by national governments and that different countries define "forested land" in different ways. In some countries, the tree canopy must cover at least 30 percent of the land for it to be considered forest. In others, 10 percent is sufficient. Very small plots--city parks, for example--are excluded from calculations in some countries. Tree height may also form part of the definition. In Taiwan, the amount of standing timber is sometimes used as a criterion.

International comparisons are therefore difficult to make, but overall it seems that with its 58.5 percent tree cover, Taiwan is less forested than Sweden (almost 70 percent of which is covered by forests and forest plantations, according to the website of the Convention on Biological Diversity), Japan (67 percent) or South Korea (64 percent). However, Taiwan appears to have much more forest for its size than many developed countries, including Switzerland (31 percent), France (25 percent) and the United Kingdom (12 percent).

The goals of the Taiwan Forestry Bureau have changed in recent years. In 2004, the bureau completed a forest district plan that divides Taiwan's state-owned forests into four categories: timber management areas, national protective areas, natural reserve areas and forest recreation areas. Since logging in state-owned forests was ended in 1982, timber management areas (currently 249,324 hectares) have focused on the replacement of felled trees. Almost all of these areas are located at elevations lower than 2,500 meters above sea level and on hillsides no steeper than 35 degrees.

National protective areas (538,138 hectares) aim to conserve soil, preserve special scenery or protect water sources such as reservoirs from contamination or sedimentation. In some places, the Forestry Bureau is pursuing all three goals simultaneously. Protective areas often feature steep slopes that are likely to be eroded if tree cover is lost. Mature trees can draw up 100 liters of water in the first hour after a rainstorm, and this ability to store water is especially important for Taiwan. Protective areas reduce the frequency and severity of flooding and help to stabilize the water supply. Taiwan receives far more rain per square kilometer than most of the world, but in terms of rainfall per capita, it gets less than one-sixth of the global average. If its forests were to shrink, Taiwan's water woes would get worse.

Ecosystem Preservation

Natural reserve areas (664,076 hectares) account for 41.7 percent of Taiwan's state-owned forests. In terms of wood volume, however, they contain almost 52 percent of the country's standing timber. In these areas, the bureau is endeavoring to preserve wild animal habitats and other ecosystems. Many natural reserve areas lie within national parks.

Now that its logging revenue has dried up, tourist dollars earned by forest recreation areas (43,404 hectares) are an important source of income for the Forestry Bureau.

Tree planting by members of the general public as part of government or non-governmental organization projects helps reforest disturbed areas and balances the effects of carbon dioxide emissions. (File Photo)

The decline of logging means there is less need for reforestation than before, but the bureau is continuing to plant trees throughout Taiwan. Between 2001 and 2006, 24,235 hectares of land were reforested or afforested, the bureau's Wu says. This required the planting of more than 35 million trees, or roughly 1,450 trees per hectare.

Historically, reforestation efforts have concentrated on vulnerable sloping areas. However, in recent years lowland plots have accounted for more than a third of the total area planted.

Wu explains that while several previous afforestation programs were designed to repair damage done by typhoons, the lowland tree-planting policy was originally intended to mitigate the impact of Taiwan's entry into the WTO on local farmers. The opening of Taiwan's markets has led to lower prices for farm produce, which in turn has led to some farmers abandoning their fields. Lowland afforestation is therefore a way of both helping local farmers and increasing the country's tree cover.

Participating landowners are required to sign 20-year contracts with the Forestry Bureau. During the 20-year period, they are paid a total of NT$530,000 (US$16,000) per hectare.

The landowners can choose from a list of approved tree species, and the bureau provides seedlings free of charge. Fertilizers and labor are the landowner's responsibility, however, and some landowners use cultivation techniques that are convenient but not environmentally ideal. Spreading large areas of plastic sheeting over the ground to keep weeds from crowding out seedlings--a method borrowed from local pineapple and watermelon farmers--is used in many places. Oftentimes, the plastic is neither recycled nor biodegradable.

"Where the bureau is directly engaged in afforestation, it does not use, and also does not suggest the use of, plastic sheeting to suppress weed growth. Also, the bureau does not use pesticides," Wu says.

According to Wu, the bureau's policy on its own land is to mow weeds for the first six years of an afforestation project. This technique is labor-intensive but environmentally friendly. The cut weeds act as mulch, retaining moisture in the soil by slowing evaporation, protecting topsoil from erosion and suppressing weed growth. After six years, the trees are usually big enough that weeds pose no threat.

The bureau uses organic fertilizers only. The exact kind depends on the place and what species of tree is being planted, Wu says.

Wu explains that while the bureau advises private landowners on how to nurture trees in a way that does not harm the environment, afforestation contracts neither ban nor penalize the use of plastic sheeting or herbicide.

According to Wu, of the 1,450 hectares that were due to be afforested last year, 600 hectares were located on the plains. Of these, 100 hectares were scheduled for what the bureau calls "green beautification"--a type of lowland project that, because it emphasizes appearance instead of maximizing growing stock, includes the planting of shrubs, flowers and grass.

The current lowland afforestation program has allowed landowners to sign up since 2002. The bureau continued signing afforestation contracts with lowland landowners through the end of 2007 and may continue to do so this year, Wu says.

Going Native

In the past, when reforesting cleared or destroyed plots, the bureau often chose non-native tree species. Large areas were planted with Japanese cedars (Cryptomeria japonica), and by 1980 around 340,000 hectares were covered by non-endemic species.

This policy made financial sense, but negatively affected the environment. "The government only considered the economic value of trees. They selected a limited number of tree species to plant, and cleared other native trees [that were not worth as much]," says Scott R.S. Lin, a researcher at the Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute who specializes in local birds. "As a result, reforested areas were not suitable for most native animals."

Since the 1980s, however, native species have been planted, and Lin says the Forestry Bureau has been trying to select species suitable for Taiwan's birds and insects.

Considering the increase in tree cover, a renewed preference for native species and the fact that logging is now confined to a small number of private commercial plantations, Taiwan's forests appear to be in better shape than they have been for decades. Also, it seems that Taiwanese are valuing them more than before.

Jeng Meei-ru, an official with TFRI's Division of Forestry Extension, thinks an increasing number of people understand the importance of Taiwan's forests.

According to Jeng, both TFRI and the Forestry Bureau have been trying to increase public awareness and appreciation of Taiwan's forests. "The matter of people's attitudes is not a simple one. Over the past 10 years, love for forests has grown. But there's a factor which is very important, and which people are directly concerned about--economics," she says.

Last year, Jeng and six of her co-workers published the results of their research on how much people were willing to pay for the conservation of Liouguei Experimental Forest in Kaohsiung County. Results from 1,200 interviews indicated that people living nearby were willing to pay an average of NT$108 (US$3) per household per year for the forest. Non-local visitors were willing to pay much more--NT$334 (US$10).

Giving for Groves

The success of reforestation efforts funded by public donations suggests that the willingness to pay expressed by Jeng's interviewees was genuine. In 2001, in the wake of the many mudslides Typhoon Toraji caused in Taiwan, the central government directed the Forestry Bureau to launch the One Person, One Tree program. Citizens were encouraged to donate NT$100 (US$3) each toward tree-planting efforts, while the government covered management and maintenance costs. By the time the program was closed after about a year, donations had paid for 302,549 new trees, or enough to cover around 180 hectares.

In June this year, National Taiwan University's (NTU) Experimental Forest Administration and the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation, a local non-governmental organization, launched Plant a Tree for Me, a program which ties in with the United Nations Environment Program's Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign.

The stated goal of Plant a Tree for Me and Plant for the Planet is the same--to sequester as much carbon as possible to ameliorate global warming. To do this, the NTU administration will plant a sapling for every NT$500 (US$15) it receives in donations. According to Chen Chieh-yin, a research assistant with the NTU administration, enough money was collected in the first five weeks of the campaign to fund the planting of 15,000 new trees. Planting of six native species will begin this month.

For a research paper published in the Taiwan Journal of Forest Science in 2002 and titled "Economic Benefit Evaluation of the Potential CO2 Sequestration by the National Reforestation Program," Jeng, together with a TFRI colleague and two scientists from National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of Forestry, studied the carbon trapping ability of various kinds of trees. The results show huge differences between species: One hectare of Taiwan glossy wax trees (Fraxinus formosana) will, in the first 20 years after planting, trap three times as much carbon dioxide as a hectare of China fir trees (Cunninghamia lanceolata). The data is also sobering, making it clear that relying on planting more trees alone would not be enough to offset the total amount of Taiwan's carbon dioxide emissions. Emissions will also inevitably have to be reduced through other means. At the same time, the Sydney APEC Leaders' Declaration on Climate Change, Energy Security and Clean Development--to which Taiwan is a signatory--states that "Forests can play a critical role in the carbon cycle." The section also makes it a goal to "coordinate with relevant international institutions to develop forest program partnerships, including the proposed World Bank forest carbon partnership facility." Thus, as international concerns over climate change and the role of carbon dioxide emissions have increased, Taiwan's forest resource managers must shift the focus of afforestation and reforestation from helping farmers and stabilizing slopes to sequestering carbon.

The Forestry Bureau is not the only government entity striving to increase the number of trees in Taiwan. The Directorate General of Highways has planted trees alongside major roads, and many towns and cities are trying to "green" their streets.

Between January 2002 and May 2007, the Hsinchu City Government planted 65,033 new trees, according to May Huang, coordinator of the city government's International Affairs Section. To mark Earth Day 2007, the township of Sinhua, working with the Tainan County Government, planted approximately 200 saplings--including Formosan ash and Honduras mahogany--on a small plot of land next to a high school.

Only trees that are planted in certain places can help conserve soil or act as part of a special ecosystem. But any tree--whether beside a busy city street or on a remote mountainside--can absorb carbon dioxide and capture carbon, mitigate global warming and add to the quality of life in Taiwan.

Copyright (c) 2008 by Steven Crook