Volunteer holidays to clean environment become a hot trend

More than 1,000 people have taken part in the programs, which have included protecting sand in the Chiku wetlands in Tainan County, using traditional eco-friendly building techniques to restore a historic tobacco facility in Hualien County, and repairing and painting the walls of rundown buildings on the outlying Orchid Island.

This past summer, the association collaborated with the Taiwan Marine Environmental Education Association and Academia Sinica's Biodiversity Research Center to attack a new target: Taiwan's coral reefs.

The group enlisted diving volunteers to work with local communities in northeastern Taiwan, Green Island, Orchid Island, Siaoliouciou, Penghu County and Taitung County's Shanyuan Beach in conducting underwater coral reef checks and collecting data to help locals gain a better understanding of area waters.

"All of our programs take a great deal of work... but the hardships have not daunted the participants, " Sun says. "The number of people choosing this form of vacation and registering for our programs has been increasing steadily."

Given Taiwan's vulnerability to natural calamities, such as earthquakes and typhoons, Sun said she believes there is still ample room for Taiwan to champion environmental volunteerism through various well-designed eco-working holiday options.

In fact, some government agencies and private organizations have followed suit in getting up similar opportunities.

Lin Wen-min, director of the Kenting National Park's Nanjenshan mountain station in southern Taiwan, said her office organized six two-day-one-night eco-working holiday packages between August and September that attracted 137 volunteers to clean up garbage in the park's Chufengpi protected area on the southeastern tip of the Hengchun peninsula.

The seven kilometers of coastline, which can only be reached by foot, are shrouded in mystery because members of the public are barred from entry without prior permission.

The area boasts unusually shaped reef rock formations and biodiversity, but it is often polluted by marine waste swept onto the beach by high waves.

Each volunteer had to walk two to three hours to reach the beach and picked up an average of two bags of marine trash, which originated from sources resembling a "mini-United Nations," including China, Hong Kong and even Malaysia, Lin said.

Despite the hardship, the reaction to the inaugural beach cleanup holiday package was more enthusiastic than expected.

"Ten senior high school students took part in the program along with their parents, who encouraged their children's participation to enhance their environmental awareness and altruism," Lin said.

The package had some other more conventional perks, including a guided ecological tour around the biologically diverse national park at night and a stay in an eco-friendly inn offering a taste of the local cuisine, and Lin believes this type of venture has the potential to generate more than simply environmental benefits.

"As well as providing a new vacation option, the working holiday also offers new promise in helping revitalize local economies."

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