Hualien, Union Bank partner on restoring forest, river habitat
By Esme Yeh / Staff reporter
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Hualien branch on Wednesday initiated an environmental, social and governance (ESG) partnership project with Union Bank of Taiwan to promote ecological reforestation and river habitat restoration in Hualien County.
The cooperation was established via the forestry agency’s carbon sink and biodiversity ESG project matching platform, making the bank the first ESG corporate partner of the branch.
The bank would adopt 2 hectares of land in the floodplain along the county’s Mugua River (木瓜溪) to help remove invasive species and reforest the land over the next 20 years, the branch said.
Plots of land are pictured at Hualong Revetment’s Chuying Levee near the Mugua River in Hualien County in an undated photograph.
Photo courtesy of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Hualien branch
Located at Hualong Revetment’s (華隆護岸) Chuying Levee (初英堤防) near the river, the plot of land is a critical part of the national ecological network, linking ecological corridors from forests to the river, it said.
The region is rich in native ecological resources, the branch said, adding that it has long been promoting ecological restoration there.
However, the floodplain has been invaded by alien species, mainly white popinac, which has formed large areas of monoculture stands that reduced habitats available to native wildlife, it said.
The branch said it has completed ecological restoration by removing white popinacs and reforesting more than 18 hectares of land in the region since 2021.
The effort would continue for the additional 2 hectares of land adopted by the bank to restore indigenous vegetation and the river’s function as a habitat, it said.
Branch Director Huang Chun-tse (黃群策) said the project focuses on long-term ecological stewardship in line with the UN’s sustainable development goals and the spirit of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, with the bank committed to managing the 2-hectare site over a 20-year period.
Bank general manager Hsu Wei-wen (許維文) said ecological restoration requires long-term commitment, as tree seedlings cannot turn into a forest overnight.
The bank specializes in financial investment and is investing in a sustainable future for the land near the river to create a more favorable and friendly living environment for native plants and animals, Hsu said.
The bank said it has engaged in wildlife conservation by adopting protected native species such as leopard cats and ring-necked pheasants for more than a decade.
It has also been donating to Shei-Pa National Park’s (雪霸國家公園) ecological conservation and environmental education, it said.
Its cooperation with the Hualien branch on reforesting the river’s floodplain marks a shift in the bank’s ecological action from wildlife species conservation to habitat and ecosystem restoration, the bank said.
The branch said the floodplain ecosystem along the river has improved through years of reforestation and has documented activities of various wildlife species.
The bank’s participation is expected to scale up the restoration benefits and enhance the integrity of ecological corridors and habitat resilience for the river, it said.
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