Community-based Ecotourism a Controversial Future for a Hakka Township
Resource
地理學報, 32, 019-040
Journal
地理學報
Journal Issue
32
Pages
019-040
Date Issued
2002-12
Date
2002-12
Author(s)
Song, Y.L.
Chiang, L.H.N.
Abstract
This study investigates community-based ecotourism in a rural township in Southern Taiwan. The Meinung township in Kaohsiung county is an agricultural community well-known for its tobacco production and cultural landscapes. It has preserved its Hakka culture more than any than any other township in Taiwan as a result of its former physical isolation. Despite this isolation, the conservative community has been forced to adapt to socio-economic changes in Taiwan by out-migration of its population and more recently, since Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), by the decline of tobacco as a staple source of income. Most recently, however, the proposed construction of a dam in the pristine Yellow Butterfly Valley has been met with resistance from the local people who organized themselves into various action groups and, in 2000, succeeded in halting dam construction. This study uses a participant-observation approach and action planning methodology to study the history of community building and the political empowerment of Meinung, focusing on the social force behind tobacco production, the Anti-Dam movement and Yellow Butterfly Festival activities. Together with the environmental movement, Hakka culture is expressed through local cultural landscapes that mark the history and livelihood of the people. The major issue facing the Meinung Community today involves building a consensus on eco-tourism between the various local groups and preventing mass tourism in order that environmental conservation and cultural preservation are not sacrificed. While Meinung is in many ways unique, this case study has significant implications for generating policy for the future sustainable development of other rural townships in Taiwan facing environmental change and negative local impacts of Taiwan’s entry into the WTO. While ecotourism is defined in many ways. This paper suggests that the cultural elements of a place deserve more attention than is usually given because they focus on the idiographic rather than the nomothetic, emphasizing the individual character that survives the impact of globalization.
Subjects
生態旅遊
反水庫運動
社區參與
文化地景
美濃黃蝶祭
Ecotourism
Anti-dam movement
Community empowerment
Cultural landscape
Yellow butterfly festival
Type
journal article