Taiwan in the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI)

Taiwan is one of the most active members of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI). Out of 271 IPSI members 16 are from Taiwan (as of December 2020), which is second only to Japan – the native land of the Satoyama Initiative (55 members). Taiwan’s IPSI members are listed below [table 1] in their order of becoming IPSI members and with the specification of their organization type.

Table 1: Taiwan’s IPSI members (2011-2020)

#	Year of joining IPSI	Organization name	Organization type
1	2011	National Dong Hwa University (NDHU)	Academic/ research
2	2012	Society for Wildlife and Nature (SWAN)	NGO
3	2013	Taiwan Ecological Engineering Development Foundation (EEF)	NGO
4	2014	Environmental Ethics Foundation of Taiwan (EEFT)	NGO
5	2016	Hualien District Research and Extension Station (HDARES), Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan	Government (local)
6	2016	Forestry Bureau, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan	Government (national)
7	2016	Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation (TSOAF)	NGO
8	2017	Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB), Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan	Government (national)
9	2017	Observer Ecological Consultant	Private sector
10	2018	National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST)	Academic/ research
11	2018	Fuli Farmers’ Association	NGO
12	2018	Chinese Society for Environmental Education (CSEE)	NGO
13	2019	International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF)	NGO
14	2019	National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (YunTech)	Academic/ research
15	2020	Taiwan Landscape Environment Association (TLEA)	NGO
16	2020	Fisheries Research Institute, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan	Government (national)

Based on IPSI Operational Guidelines, each organization should submit at least one Case Study within six months after becoming an IPSI member – to demonstrate and share organization’s activities in relation to SEPLS. Some of the case studies presented on IPSI official website are also the result of Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM) projects or Satoyama Initiative Thematic Review (SITR) publications. SDM (since 2013) is a financing mechanism that provides seed funding (USD 10,000) to promising projects proposed by IPSI members, while SITR (since 2015) is an annual publication series brought together around a common theme related to SEPLS.

[For more information on IPSI Case Studies, SDM and SITR, please visit the official IPSI website: https://satoyama-initiative.org/activity/]

All of the above are exciting opportunities for Taiwan to share its on-the-ground experiences and learn from international partners as a part of TPSI “think global” strategy. By December 2020, 17 Case Studies, five SDM projects (including one ongoing) and five SITR publications have been submitted to IPSI official website by Taiwan’s members [table 2].

Table 2: Case Studies, SDM Projects and SITR publications of Taiwan’s IPSI members (2013-2019)

#	Year of submission	Organization name	Case study title	SDM Project and/or SITR publication
1	2014	National Dong Hwa University (NDHU)	Collaborative planning and management of socio-ecological production landscapes: a rice paddy cultural landscape conservation in an indigenous community, Taiwan
2	2014	Society for Wildlife and Nature (SWAN)	Converting pests as allies in tea farming – a potential case of Satoyama landscape in Hualien, Taiwan	SDM Project 2013 SITR-1 publication
3	2015	Environmental Ethics Foundation of Taiwan (EEFT)	Facilitating biological and freshwater resource conservation by agricultural activities at Gongliao-Hoho-Terraced-Paddy-Fields, Taiwan
4	2016	National Dong Hwa University (NDHU)	Tailoring the Satoyama Initiative concepts to national and local context: a case study of the collaborative planning process of a rice paddy cultural landscape in an indigenous community, Taiwan	SDM Project 2014 SITR-2 publication
5	2016	Hualien District Research and Extension Station (HDARES), Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan	Indicator species for agrobiodiversity in rice paddy fields: research and its application in eastern rural Taiwan	SITR-3 publication
6	2017	Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation (TSOAF)	Green Conservation Program: a system for biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture in Taiwan
7	2018	National Dong Hwa University (NDHU)	Facilitating the development of Taiwan Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (TPSI)	SDM Project 2016
8	2018	Forestry Bureau, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan	Facilitating the development of Taiwan Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (TPSI), 2014-2017
9	2018	Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB), Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan; Society for Wildlife and Nature (SWAN)	Transformations towards sustainability – a SEPL restored by Gongrong community	SITR-4 publication
10	2018	Society for Wildlife and Nature (SWAN)	Converting pests into allies in tea farming – a SEPL case in Hualien, Taiwan
11	2018	Observer Ecological Consultant	Conserving the giant water bug (Lethocerus indicus) by eco-friendly farming
12	2018	National Dong Hwa University (NDHU)	Building up multi-stakeholder cross-sector partnerships for the “Xinshe Forest-River-Village-Sea Ecoagriculture Initiative” in eastern rural Taiwan
13	2018	National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST)	Promoting under-forest economy under the concept of Satoyama Initiative: a case study of Wutai Township, Pingtung County
14	2018	Hualien District Research and Extension Station (HDARES), Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan	Taiwan stingless bee field investigation and greenhouse pollination preliminary work	SDM Project 2017
15	2019	Chinese Society for Environmental Education (CSEE)	Apply environmental education to foster practices of the Satoyama Initiative – examples of Nature Centers of the Forest Bureau
16	2019	Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB), Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan; Society for Wildlife and Nature (SWAN)	Taking care of the elderly as the core of rural transformation in Shangde community, Taitung, Taiwan
17	2019	National Dong Hwa University (NDHU)	Towards an integrated multi-stakeholder landscape approach to reconciling values and enhancing synergies: a case study in Taiwan	SITR-5 publication
[ongoing]	2020	National Dong Hwa University (NDHU)	[ongoing] Development of locally-sensitive indicators of resilience as a tool for adaptive landscape management in Taiwan’s SEPLS	[ongoing] SDM Project 2020

Each year IPSI organizes a number of activities to facilitate experience sharing between its members and support SEPLS restoration and conservation activities. IPSI Collaborative Activities involve the participation of two or more IPSI member organizations (not necessarily from the same country), cover a wide variety of SEPLS topics and are endorsed by the IPSI Steering Committee. To date, 14 of Taiwan’s IPSI members have either led or taken part and supported four IPSI Collaborative Activities, one of which (led by National Dong Hwa University, the Forestry Bureau and National Pingtung University of Science and Technology) is still ongoing [table 3].

Table 3: IPSI Collaborative Activities undertaken by Taiwan’s members

#	Year of IPSI Collaborative Activity	Organization name	Collaboration Activity title	Status of completion
1	2015	National Dong Hwa University (NDHU), Society for Wildlife and Nature (SWAN), Taiwan Ecological Engineering Development Foundation (EEF), Environmental Ethics Foundation of Taiwan (EEFT), Forestry Bureau and Hualien District Research and Extension Station (HDARES)	Facilitating the Development of a Taiwan Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (TPSI)	Completed
2	2016	Hualien District Research and Extension Station (HDARES), National Dong Hwa University (NDHU)	Integrated project of enhancing ecoagriculture and sustainable development of rural Taiwan through international cooperation	Completed
3	2017	Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB), Society for Wildlife and Nature (SWAN)	2018 International Symposium on Resilience of SEPLS	Completed
4	2020	National Dong Hwa University (NDHU), Forestry Bureau, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) + Chinese Society for Environmental Education (CSEE), Environmental Ethics Foundation of Taiwan (EEFT), Fuli Farmers Association, Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station (HDARES), International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF), National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (YunTech), Observer Ecological Consultant, Society for Wildlife and Nature (SWAN), Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB), Taiwan Ecological Engineering Development Foundation (EEF), Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation (TOAF)	Mainstreaming of Taiwan Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (TPSI) in line with Taiwan Ecological Network (TEN)	Ongoing

In addition to the “think global” activities organized by IPSI, Taiwan’s IPSI members have also started a tradition of their own – Taiwan IPSI Members’ Annual Conference. In August 2019, in preparation for the Global IPSI-8 Conference in Kumamoto, Japan, the Forestry Bureau and NDHU invited all Taiwan’s IPSI members to exchange ideas on jointly representing Taiwan to their international colleagues. Following the 2019 success, in December 2020, they got together again to review and plan Taiwan’s engagement with IPSI, brainstorm potential collaborative activities and post-2020 strategies. With many common themes and pathways for cooperation, this tradition will surely be carried forward for the years to come.