Council of Agriculture to introduce films on forest rehabilitation

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on December 12, 2006. It reports that the Council of Agriculture is currently holding a film festival to introduce 40 documentary films, which feature Taiwan's forest rehabilitation efforts and other natural phenomena on the island.

The 40 films will be played both indoor and outdoor until December 22, 2006, in various places around Taiwan. These include the Taipei City Auditorium, the Kaohsiung Movies Library, in Taichung, Hsinchu, Yilan and Hualien counties, and in the Taiwan Forestry Bureau's eight local offices, in the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, and in the Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute.

Apart from Taiwan's forest rehabilitation efforts, the films will also cover the island's marine life and ecological diversity, endemic birds, retiles, fish and other marine wildlife, insects, plants, and the transformation of farming villages around the island. In particular, one of the films is a documentary on Taiwan's Common Pheasant, which was recently nominated for two awards for outstanding filming and editing at the 29th Montana International Wildlife Films Festival.

Those who are interested in watching these films may go to the Taiwan Forestry Bureau's web site for more details about when and where they will be playing. According to the Council of Agriculture, the film festival will offer unique and beautiful Taiwan scenes for the appreciation of those who may otherwise never have the opportunity to see them. It is hoped that after people see these films, they will grow more interested in Taiwan's ecology and take more concrete action to protect it.

Specifically, these films are expected to help local residents and the international community learn more about Taiwan, such as the fact that Taiwan is a subtropical island with an area of 36,000 square kilometres. As such, the weather is usually warm but rainy. Steep valleys and undulating mountain ranges -- some reaching an altitude of almost 4,000 meters -- stretch across the length and breadth of the island, which vaguely resembles a banana leaf.

This mixed topography gives Taiwan a variety of ecosystems, including ocean, delta, swamp, desert and various types of forest biomes. It also provides for the habitat of a medley of flora and fauna. The island is home to approximately 4,000 species of vascular plants and over 150,000 different animal species. Furthermore, Taiwan is located on the boundary between the Oriental and Palaearctic bio-geographical realms, which means that there is a confluence of wildlife sharing the environment. This applies to the marine ecology of the immediate area as well as to land-based animals and plants.

Roughly 25 percent of Taiwan's indigenous flora and fauna can be found flourishing in the island's 19 nature reserves, 39 wildlife refuges, six national parks and 10 forest reserves. These protected areas occupy a total of 699,197 hectares of land, or 19.2 percent of Taiwan's total land area, and cover a variety of different ecosystems ranging from tropical rain forest to high elevation zones.

According to the Council of Agriculture, the film festival is an example of Taiwan's conservation endeavours and the efforts of both government and private groups to protect the island's endangered species. It is hoped that people will see how government, private and academic institutions in Taiwan are able to cooperate internationally to develop the values of sustainable development and concern for future generations.

The Council of Agriculture has allocated annual budgets for documentary filmmakers, so that they may concentrate on producing high-quality documentary films and videos about the issues of environmental protection and ecology, indigenous culture and society in Taiwan.