is the plan to establish a PA for the black-faced spoonbill. In October 2000,
DPP Magistrate Chen submitted a proposal to include 1210 hectares of land as
the spoonbill PA. However, ENGOs insisted on including an additional 300
hectares of fish farms in the region. The Tainan County government agreed to
add 30 hectares, and reserved the remainder for the usage of National Tainan
University and Chimei Hospital.
Under considerable pressure from ENGOs to add additional protected area
coverage, Chen opined that economic development and ecological protection
were ‘equally important’. Chen argued that residents of Qigu should not have
to sacrifice their livelihoods merely for the sake of birds and fish. Moreover,
ecological protection would not help Taiwan rejoin the United Nations
(a leading national campaign). Chen said ENGOs needed to exercise self-
constraint: ‘Eco-imperialism’ was unacceptable in Tainan County.^30
Some local residents and villagers opposed the expansion of the PA for the
black-faced spoonbills. In August 2001, the Qigu Village Council attacked the
COA, and resolved that the PA should not be further expanded unless the
county government launched the Binnan petrochemical and steel project.
Village representatives complained that the long delay of the Binnan project
had damaged economic development opportunities for Tainan County.^31
The real purpose of the COA’s Qigu PA plan was to integrate the black-
faced spoonbill PA and the Sicao Wildlife PA in the northern part of Tainan
County. The steel plant proposed for the Binnan project was to be located
between Sicao and Qigu. In October 2001, the COA declared that the Binnan
project was canceled because of the economic downturn. The MOEA objected
that short-term economic cycles should not influence long-term investment
plans. Since the Binnan project was sponsored by the Bureau of Industry in the
MOEA, the enterprises had to report to the bureau if they planned to withdraw
from the project, and they had not done so.^32
The sluggish economy in the southern part of Taiwan was a reason to restart
the Binnan project. On October 26, 2001, the speaker of the Tainan County
Council openly supported it. He argued that the project would not conflict with
usages of Qigu lagoon and the black-faced spoonbill habitat. Given the
economic recession, the Binnan project would provide job opportunities and
restart economic growth. Revisions to the Binnan project, which limited usage
to no more than 5 percent of the lagoon, would guarantee the survival of the
fishing industry in the region. The original developer of the Binnan project,
Yeh-loong, had merged with the state-owned China Steel Company. China
Petroleum also was interested in the construction of the seventh naptha cracker
plant in the Qigu region. These two state-owned enterprises (SOEs) would
attract other companies to form a large industrial complex, and thus bring
prosperity to the region.^33
After the DPP became Taiwan’s ruling party in 2000, ENGOs opposed to
206 Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan