| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立海洋大學 === 漁業科學系碩士在職專班 === 91 === Taiwan is an island surrounded by beautiful coastal sceneries and abundant resources. When Portuguese sailors first caught sight of the island, they couldn’t help but exclaimed: “Ilha Formosa!” Rapid coastal developments in the past decades, however, have not only severely polluted the island’s coastal waters, but have also damaged the island’s ecological environment. The deterioration of coastal environment has a tremendous effect on resource preservation and the living standards of the island’s inhabitants. The coastal region has been put under great environmental stress and coastal cleaning has become an important issue that requires immediate attention.
In 1997, the Administrative Yuan enacted the “Coastal Area Clean-Up and Preservation Program.” Although Keelung has been implementing the clean-up program since its enactment, but due to Keelung’s special geographical environment and other unforeseen difficulties, the program requires further attention and improvement strategies to be effective.
This research studies the current implementation of Keelung’s regional coastal clean-up program. Data on the sources of garbage collected along the coast and its surrounding sea phenomena are analyzed. Phone interviews and surveys were conducted throughout the island to get a better understanding of the current development at each implementation unit throughout the island. Information on activities held by other international coastal clean-up organizations was gathered from the Internet. On-site field studies were carried out in the Keelung area to categorize the garbage collected along the coast. The above information was then analyzed by means of SWOT to derive at an improvement plan.
Our study found the following:
a. Keelung is located on the northern tip of Taiwan, Kuroshio Current and China coastal currents carry rubbish to the area. Since the northern and southern currents are too weak to take the rubbish away with them, large amount of rubbish is washed upon Keelung’s coastal region. Data from the 2002 coastal rubbish collection shows that Keelung coastal region has more rubbish on its shore than anywhere else on the island, averaging 2000.8kg/km. This large of amount of pollution has severely damaged the coastal environment and ecological resources in the region.
b. The clean-up efficiency in the Keelung area reached 173.1% in 2002, which has far surpass the Environmental Protection Administration’s standards of 18 clean-ups/km/yr. Given such high efficiency, however, the coastal region in the Keelung area still hasn’t reached what one would considered normal condition.
c. The source of coastal rubbish can be separated into two major categories, one being from the ocean and the other coming from land. Most of the rubbish in the area comes from household and industrial wastes, namely, plastic (62%), Styrofoam (11%), metal (7%), glass (5%), and wastes from fisheries industry (3%). These wastes are washed up under normal climatic condition, without the influence of northeast monsoons or typhoons. During typhoon season, most wastes that drifted on shore after a typhoon are mostly woods and logs, making it difficult to control the garbage situation in the area.
d. Involvement in long-term clean-up sponsorship program by local residents, government agencies, and schools is very low. Data from the 2002 clean-up involvement shows that only seven percent of the people involved in the clean-up program belonged to long-term sponsorships. Fifty-four percent of the clean up were done by hired helped, and thirty-nine percent of the clean up were done by sporadic sponsorships.
e. The lack of general awareness for the environment from the general public results in garbage being discarded at free will after leisure activities.
f. Most educational activities are held in the spring and the fall, and most participants in these activities are non-profit organizations. Activities should be designed to involve elementary and junior high students to instill the concept of environmental preservation in children.
g. Coastal cleaning activities should be held in conjunction with other activities to raise general awareness of a clean environment. Rubbish should be traced to its source so that the general public is made aware of its origin.
h. Government and environmental protection agencies should set up exclusive agency whose main responsibility is to plan and implement coastal cleaning activities. Such agency should serve as the liaison between various government offices, control and analyzed garbage source, reinforce environmental protection acts, establish sponsorship programs in the community, implement training and educational programs on environmental protection, sponsor study tours, and participate in international environmental protection activities. The goal of such agency is to establish a set administrative procedure that joins government agencies and local residents in the act against polluted coastal environment. The outcome of such engagement would be to minimize spending but at the same time maximize outcome. Cleaning up the coastal region in Keelung not only will provide its residents with good outdoor leisure environment, but is also a way to protect its valuable coastal resources.
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