Traveling light is the theme of this year’s annual National Park Week, according to the Construction and Planning Agency under the Ministry of the Interior June 19.
This year’s main NPW events include a 103-kilometer walk for health and a wide range of innovative activities in the country’s nine national parks and one national nature park. Other highlights include the Tataka Trail working holiday scheme at Yushan in central Taiwan and a youth camp at Taijiang in the south.
The 38 national park trails selected for NPW activities will take visitors across the full range of the nation’s diverse ecosystem, from the mountains to the sea, the CPA said.
MOI Minister Chen Wei-zen said this year’s NPW coincides with the 30th anniversary of Taiwan’s first national park in Kenting and the establishment of the Four Islands of Southern Penghu National Park earlier in the month. In recognition of this, the initiative stresses the various roles played by the parks in national development.
“Over the past three decades, national parks have helped preserve cultural and natural resources, fulfilling multiple missions of habitat conservation, education, recreation and research.”
As Taiwan is a densely populated island with a fragile ecosystem, it is especially important for the government to closely adhere to the national land planning scheme under the national park framework, Chen said.
“The innovative activities will promote concepts of ecotourism, helping people to appreciate the nation’s heritage assets and their preservation for future generations,” he added.
