Just recently, Capital Engineering Corp. (CEC) turned a company outing into an eco-working holiday for the first time, with the company's vice general manager, Shih Chi-yuan, leading 12 employees to volunteer at Yangmingshan National Park in suburban Taipei.

They took part in a program that has been organized by the Taiwan Environmental Information Association (TEIA) every weekend from May to September over the past five years to rid Yonglai Ecological Park of goose grass, an invasive alien species, and Leersia hexandra, a dominant native grass, and preserve the ecological balance of Yangmingshan's Lengshueikeng wetlands.

Wearing wetsuits, they waded through the muddy wetlands and quickly found out how difficult it was to pull their legs from the sticky mud.

"It was more difficult pulling my legs from the mud than weeding out the grass, " Shih said in an interview. "Only now have I come to realize how invasive this pan-tropical species is and why it is so difficult to tame."

Because environmental engineering is part of CEC's core business, Shih has often read in environmental impact assessments how invasive aquatic plants encroach on the habitats of indigenous species.

But "through this volunteer service, we got first-hand experience and saw for ourselves how goose grass has affected local aquatic plant growth, " Shih said.

"In the future, we will use more eco-friendly and environmentally sound thinking when preparing environmental impact assessments for our customers."

CEC employee Hu Wen-hsing introduced the eco-working holiday program to Shih and other colleagues after being a participant for three years.

"We white-collar workers usually spend a lot of time in the office. The eco-working holiday program allows us to get closer to the soil and Mother Nature, " said the 20-something Hu. "You will be amazed by nature's strength and wonders... and be driven to do more for it."

The working holiday concept is not new. Taiwan has long had groups of volunteers use their leisure time to build bridges for financially strapped townships or repair houses for disadvantaged families.

Eco-working holidays, however, focus on doing something for the environment. Participants usually have to engage in manual labor, such as tree planting, cleaning up scenic areas in the mountains or perhaps taking part in community beautification projects.

The TEIA took the initiative to introduce the eco-working holiday program to Taiwan in August 2004.

In its initial project, it enlisted volunteers from home and abroad to help build an artificial wetland to recycle wastewater and plant millet in the Taiping ecological farm along the famous Lijia Trail in eastern Taiwan's Taitung County.

The project also entailed bird watching, river tracing, participation in aboriginal festival celebrations and visits to prehistorical tribal sites.

Sun Hsiu-ju, a TEIA department director, said the program allows participants to become involved in local natural settings and culture, experience nature, relax the body and mind, and help the natural environment.

In the five years since the program's launch, the TEIA has organized different types of eco-working holidays geared to maintained ecological balance in diverse natural habitats, Sun says.

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."