Taiwan Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (TPSI)

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Taiwan Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (TPSI) was set up as a national multi-stakeholder partnership network on implementation of activities under the Satoyama Initiative in Taiwan. At a conceptual level, TPSI’s efforts are guided by Aichi Biodiversity Targets (2011-2020) and 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while learning from IPSI, working closely with IPSI Secretariat and on-the-ground partner organizations are the essential parts of TPSI’s action strategy [figure 1].

TPSI Strategic Framework
Design of TPSI Strategic Framework is based on IPSI Operational Framework (2010) with its two main targets: addressing issues of SEPLS and formulating solutions, and conservation and revitalization of SEPLS [figure 2]. The well-known formula of “think global, act local” was further elaborated by TPSI to include a third, middle, component – “adapt national”. There are five clusters of activities within the global-national-local components of TPSI Strategic Framework: international participation, policy research, knowledge enhancement, capacity-building, and on-the-ground activities.

Think Global
International participation includes a wide range of interactions with the international satoyama partners, such as sharing Taiwan’s experiences and learning from others at the regional and global IPSI conferences, taking part in activities organized by IPSI (Case Study Reports, Collaborative Activities, Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM), Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review (SITR)), inviting international satoyama experts (e.g. from UNU-IAS) to visit Taiwan, and producing publications on TPSI activities to the international readership.

Adapt National
Policy research activities are related to revision of international and domestic policies on eco-friendly agriculture, conservation and rural development practices, and finding ways to promote the Satoyama Initiative, conservation and revitalization of SEPLS as a part of the national legal framework.
Knowledge enhancement draws on international and domestic theoretical and practical experiences with SEPLS (e.g., SEPLS management and assessment of SEPLS resilience) to adapt this knowledge for policy formulation, capacity-building and on-the-ground activities of TPSI.

Act Local
Capacity building includes a wide range of information sharing, environmental education, skill development activities aimed at the stuff from government agencies (eight branchs of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency), local communities and general public (with a particular emphasis on the youth). The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s official website, “Taiwan Forestry” journal, thematic workshops at selected localities, documentaries, books, and brochures all serve this purpose – aiding the Taiwanese public to better understand and appreciate the value of SEPLS.

On-the-ground activities are workshops, on-site visits and exchanges, seminars, and environmental interpretation events organized with and by the satoyama practitioners – local and indigenous communities, farmers, local schools, non-governmental organizations, and green enterprises. Sharing successful practical examples on revitalization and conservation of SEPLS, eliciting common and specific problems faced by communities and jointly finding solutions to pertaining problems – these are the characteristic features of TPSI on-the-ground activities.

TPSI Implementation phases
The overall implementation of TPSI to date may be divided into two main stages: the pilot implementation phase of 2014-2015 and extension implementation phase of 2016-2020.

2014-2015: The pilot implementation phase was the time of acquaintance and exploration: getting to know like-minded partners across Taiwan, finding common themes for cooperation and exploring potential interlinkages between these partners and themes. During this time, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency and NDHU worked hand in hand on policy research and knowledge enhancement to find ways to incorporate the Satoyama Initiative in the national legal framework in the future. Also, a number of capacity building activities such as IPSI case-study writing workshops were carried out – to encourage experience exchange and international outreach from a growing number of on-the-ground TPSI partners. The First International Conference on Eco-Agriculture and the Satoyama Initiative held in Hualien District Research and Extension Station (HDARES) in September 2015 became a milestone for taking the Satoyama Initiative in Taiwan to a new level. It was the first time when Taiwan’s agricultural (HDARES) and nature conservation (the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency) sectors set out to work together on biodiversity conservation and revitalization of rural areas.

2016-2020: Beginning of the phase was marked with a historic moment which may be seen as a success of the preceding two years – the Satoyama Initiative became a new ministerial policy announced by both the new Minister of the Council of Agriculture (May 2016) and the new Director General of the Forestry Bureau (July 2016). Such a solid support from the central government agencies was vital for achieving the goals set out for the extension implementation phase of TPSI: (1) continuing to promote five clusters of activities under TPSI Strategic Framework (international participation, policy research, knowledge enhancement, capacity development, and on-the-ground activities); (2) integrating and supporting promulgation of the 2018-2021 Taiwan Ecological Network (2018-2021 TEN); (3) promoting TPSI with the help of eight branchs under the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency to facilitate the “act local” objective nation-wide.

2021 onwards: Post-2020 is promising to be an exciting phase in TPSI development with deepening of the previous five years of efforts in all three components of TPSI Strategic Framework. From “think global” perspective TPSI is encouraged to seek ways to align its efforts with the Global Biodiversity Framework (2021-2030), 2030 SDGs and integrated landscape approaches. At the “adapt national” scale enhancement of connectivity between TPSI members and themes as well as qualitative and quantitative evaluation of TPSI effectiveness are the key. The “act local” component is in need of a more in-depth problem-oriented approach capable of highlighting common and specific issues faced by Taiwan’s SEPLS and the ways for TPSI to address them.

Over these years, a successful implementation of TPSI has been possible thanks to the dedicated efforts of its key stakeholders: project supporter and key policy-making authority – the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, project leader and coordinator - NDHU, Taiwan’s IPSI members and non-IPSI members. Unlike IPSI, there is no official membership in TPSI, which means that any person or organization interested in implementing satoyama-satoumi-related activities can be a part of TPSI network. It is fair to say that capacity-building and on-the-ground activities are the characteristic features of TPSI as a national multi-stakeholder network. By the end of 2020, 197 organizations and about 900 people have taken part in TPSI “act local” activities. Also, inclusion of the Satoyama Initiative and TPSI into 2018-2021 TEN has secured a truly nation-wide outreach of TPSI’s “adapt national” efforts.

[For “think global” contributions of TPSI partners please see “Taiwan in the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI)” section]

Act Local: TPSI Regional Exchange Bases and Regional Workshops
Starting from 2016, in order to stimulate nation-wide experience sharing and learning about best satoyama practices from different corners of Taiwan, NDHU and the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency initiated a special type of on-the-ground activities – TPSI Regional Workshops. These are annual two-day events (a total of four each year – one in northern, western, southern and eastern regions of Taiwan) consisting of on-site visits to SEPLS managed by indigenous and local communities in the region, accompanied by environmental interpretation and education activities and a half-day symposium with experience sharing and discussion sessions.

Being itself located in the eastern region of Taiwan (Hualien County), in 2016, NDHU assisted northern, western and southern regions to organize the pilot series of the Workshops. Following the success of this initial experience, in 2017, NDHU was joined by its first regional partner from the southern region – National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) and the two co-organized the Workshops that year. In 2018, the other two regional partners came aboard TPSI – Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (DILA) from the northern region and the Endemic Species Research Institute (ESRI) from the western region. This way, from 2018 onwards, each of the regional partners became responsible for organizing the workshops in their respective region which also earned them the name of TPSI Regional Exchange Bases – TPSI-N, TPSI-W, TPSI-S, and TPSI-E [figure 3].

Apart from organizing the Workshops and inviting TPSI members from other regions to attend them, TPSI Regional Exchange Bases play an essential role in working both with local and indigenous communities and the government agencies in the area (two branchs of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency per one TPSI Regional Exchange Base). They often serve as facilitators of dialogue and cooperation between the communities and the government, assist in finding pathways for action and stimulate capacity-building activities within their region.
Based on the area of expertise of each TPSI Regional Exchange Base and issues addressed at TPSI Regional Workshops each year, the themes of the Workshops have so far included revitalization of SEPLS and youth participation (2016-2017), TPSI regional and national networking (2018), intergenerational learning, knowledge transfer and women’s roles (2019), SEPLS resilience and biodiversity (2020), production and marketing in SEPLS (2021).

Participants of TPSI Regional Workshops can be divided into seven categories: government agencies, research and academia, NGOs and NPOs, community organizations, green enterprises, farms and agro-parks, and others. The growing interest in the Workshops is apparent from the number of participants over the five years: from 29 organizations in 2016 to 198 in 2020 with the number of seats in each Workshop limited to 35-40 on a first-come-first-serve basis. Majority of participants represent community organizations, NGOs and NPOs, and government agencies, while the number of green enterprises (e.g., farmers’ associations) has also significantly increased over time [figure 4].

Adapt National: Taiwan Ecological Network (2018-2021)
By the end of 2017, it became clear that there was an urgent need for a wider inclusion of ecological, especially biodiversity-related, component into TPSI activities as well as for mainstreaming of the Satoyama Initiative into Taiwan’s national policy. Despite the evident success of promoting the Satoyama Initiative in Taiwan, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency could not help but point out the dangers of intense land-use change and conventional agricultural practices to the island’s biodiversity. There was an urgent need for a comprehensive plan to restore fragmented ecosystems, create connectivity between different landscape elements, and promote sustainable resource use. Hence, the 2018-2021 TEN was called on to accomplish this task.

2018-2021 TEN was proposed by the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency as a new cross-sectoral project based on the cooperation between inter-ministerial agencies subordinate to the Ministry of Agriculture. In 2018, it was approved by the Executive Yuan along with its four-year budget of USD 750,000. The main conservation target of 2018-2021 TEN is revitalization and conservation of Taiwan’s SEPLS in order to achieve the vision of “Living in Harmony with Nature” under the Satoyama Initiative and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The first objective of 2018-2021 TEN is to consolidate the ecological survey data of the previous years to identify the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) in Taiwan. A special focus is on the KBAs outside the Central Mountain conservation corridor that traditionally is home to the majority of Taiwan’s protected areas and national forests. The second objective is to engage in protecting and connecting these KBAs (mostly located in low hills and agricultural areas) by the means of eco-friendly agricultural practices under the concept of the Satoyama Initiative. The third objective is to develop east-west wildlife-friendly passages and ecological corridors by the means of rivers, forests and roads to connect important ecosystems between the Central Mountain range and the coastal areas.

Establishment of 2018-2021 TEN and its six perspectives [figure 5] marked a significant shift from traditional protected areas conservation approach towards the one based on recognizing rural areas as a link for restoring the balance between natural and urban systems in Taiwan. It also highlighted a fundamental role that SEPLS play in biodiversity conservation through the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices and revival of rural communities.

[For more information on 2018-2021 TEN (in Chinese), please visit the official page: https://www.forest.gov.tw/0002812]

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