On May 22nd, the International Day for Biological Diversity, the Ministry of Agriculture joined with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in a program to promote mainstreaming of biodiversity and cultivate conservation personnel
In recent years Taiwan’s Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), taking account of both food security and environmental sustainability, has been proactively promoting organic and eco-friendly agriculture and enhancing the services value of agricultural ecosystems. To these ends, the MOA has developed the “Green Environmental Payment Program” and a program to establish the “Taiwan Ecological Network.” It has also coordinated overall assistance and cooperation between government agencies in charge of areas including agriculture, transportation, water resources and non-governmental partners to promote eco-friendly environments where humans and nature can harmoniously co-exist and where there is a win-win situation for agriculture and the environment. On May 22nd, the International Day for Biological Diversity, the MOA’s Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute (TBRI) and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) jointly launched the “Eco Plus!” program for ecological harmony. Together they are playing their part in mainstreaming biodiversity in Taiwan.
The MOA states that the cooperation between the TBRI and TSMC involves two main parts. The first part is to jointly promote “citizen science” and get people to use the internationally accepted “iNaturalist” App to record observations about the ecologies surrounding them in their daily lives. Not only will this enable students to deeply understand the content of nature conservation and ecological education, it will strengthen training of teachers at all levels to become “seed teachers” so that the observation of nature becomes a more widespread behavior and Taiwan can get in line with worldwide practices. The second part is to jointly promote incentives for developing biodiversity in Taiwan. Through a selection process and the awarding of financial prizes in various categories, the program will draw attention to and encourage individuals and groups that make outstanding contributions to the protection, study, and promotion of biodiversity. This will cultivate even more high-level domestic biodiversity research personnel and provide rewards to people working in their localities to do practical conservation.
The MOA points out that this collaboration with TSMC to jointly promote mainstreaming of biodiversity and deepen training of conservation personnel is an example of cooperation with private enterprises to promote all types of policies. It will deepen citizens’ understanding of eco-friendly agriculture, resource sustainability, and ecological conservation. This joint program emphasizes the services value of natural resources and biodiversity so that the beauty of “Formosa” (Portuguese for “the beautiful isle”) can be sustainably passed down to future generations.
Sources: Ministry of Agriculture
