Taijiang National Park in the southern city of Tainan celebrated 15 years in operation with the heartwarming story of a black-faced spoonbill that returns to Annan District every fall after being rescued by park staff.
At the end of February 2015 a group of sick birds was spotted by workers at Taijiang. The endangered creatures were sent to the Ministry of Agriculture’s Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute in the central county of Nantou for care. Six birds recovered and were released to the wild a few weeks later.
By April of that year a juvenile of the group with the tag number T69 was registered as present in Liaoning province in northeastern China. The National Park Service said that it was logged at fishponds in Annan District every October, displaying a touching fidelity to its winter habitat.
In recent years Taijiang has worked to promote an expanded eco-friendly habitat in the areas surrounding the park by cooperating with local fish farmers. Forty-seven farmers have joined the project to date, covering an area of 248.57 hectares. This mode of cooperation has simultaneously facilitated development of the fishery industry and ecological conservation, the NPS added.
Park Director Shieh Wei-sung emphasized that since the establishment of the park in 2009, it has been dedicated to the maintenance of habitats in the protected areas while actively building relations with corporations, neighboring communities and nongovernmental organizations to gradually forge a public-private preservation network. He concluded that the facility would continue to incorporate sustainable resources from businesses and construct environmentally friendly habitats to provide safer and richer surroundings for all migratory birds. (POC-E)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw
from Taiwan Today – Top News