significant differences between the ENGO portfolios of the two states, and the
contribution they make to the development of civil society.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT IN TAIWAN
Historical Review
Early environmental consciousness in the 1980s
Taiwan’s environmental movement is a part of the rise in Taiwan’s civil
society during the 1980s. After the crackdown of the ‘Formosa Magazine
Incident’,^4 a severe street confrontation between police and opposition forces
in Kaohsiung in the late 1970s, Taiwan’s political opposition movement
gradually regained support from the middle class and grassroots elements in
the 1980s. The Taiwan state adopted a more accommodative policy to develop
new channels of dialog with opposition forces. The Kuomintang’s (KMT)
policy of indigenization also opened the door for the native political elite to be
integrated into the KMT’s soft authoritarian regime.
Taiwan’s economic miracle was achieved at the cost of environmental
deterioration. In the 1980s, environmental problems had reached crisis propor-
tions. Coinciding with the rise of civil society, serious pollution incidents such
as that caused by Du Pont in 1986 and the Lee Chang Rong Chemical Factory
in 1982 erupted and drew public attention. The Du Pont pollution case showed
that local residents finally had gained environmental consciousness due to
unbearable pollution and environmental damage. At this stage, environmental
protests led by opposition politicians reflected ‘NIMBY’ism (not in my back
yard) – complaints about local environmental pollution. Opposition politicians
also used their version of mass mobilization to generate grassroots support.
They organized large-scale rallies, sit-ins, and even direct blockages of
polluting enterprises and the bureaucracies supporting them. Many opposition
leaders were successful in achieving environmental justice and accumulating
political capital among the general public. No institutionalized channels
between the state and society were established or utilized as vehicles for
implementing sustainable development.
The apogee of the environmental movement in the early 1990s
As the regime suspended martial law and launched democratization programs
in the late 1980s, the environmental movement also gained momentum and
developed a national instead of a local focus. As compared to the grassroots
demonstrations and protests of the previous era, the scale and intensity of
environmental issues attracted public attention. The general public gradually
learned to think beyond local instances of environmental abuse and paid
ENGOs, civil society and biodiversity conservation 161