Photoelectric advance Jackie Chan Wetland 03 "Development interests encourage people, how can villagers believe that one day wetlands can revitalize Jackie Chan Village?"

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(continued above) the residents of the chenglong community have finally begun to gather together a vision of coexistence and common prosperity with wetlands. in recent years, however, photovoltaic projects have been developed one after another around the village, and people's hearts have begun to waver. "There's nothing I can do. There's profit to be made. I'm scrambling for it." The elderly in the community are showing the wait-and-see mood of the villagers.

Since the Agriculture Committee announced in 2015 that the two areas around Chenglong Wetland belong to the "unfavorable farming areas" that can be developed by photovoltaics, Chenglong Community and Guanshu Foundation have continuously petitioned the Agriculture Committee, and in 2018, they successfully excluded part of the land around Chenglong Wetland from the "unfavorable farming areas" that can be developed by photovoltaics. This incident caused some villagers who expected to develop photovoltaic power to think that wetland conservationists were blocking the development of photovoltaic power. More and more suspicion, so that the original unity of the village gradually appeared cracks.

A ground-based photoelectric field has been developed behind Chenglong Elementary School. (Courtesy of conservationists) High rents challenge wetland conservation vision

At present, the wetland on the north side of Taiwan 61 Line is being filled with piles to build a roof-type fish-electricity symbiosis site, and ground-type photovoltaic panels are also being built on the north side of Chenglong Elementary School. Land brokers are increasingly active locally, persuading landlords to lease their land to photovoltaics; on the other hand, other community officials are still actively persuading waiting landlords not to lease photovoltaics but to take over ecological compensation for wetlands. The two types of development compete with each other, and some people even directly express their support for photovoltaic development in public meetings. Community cadres who are vaguely related to wetland conservation are beginning to have a sense of hostility towards each other.

Villagers know that after taking the land to cover photovoltaics, they can get far higher rents than wetland ecological compensation. "The heart changes slowly, but it sinks quickly." Tian Rizheng said that the development of reality is difficult to violate human nature.

"In the past, when the Jackie Chan wetland was not famous, someone would come to the wetland to steal waste. He's been up for less than three minutes, and we're going to have to mobilize everyone in our community to clean up for the afternoon." He recalled that the community had come all the way to protect wetlands, and although it was hard work, everyone was willing to enjoy it.

Tian Rizheng said with emotion,"Some people want to build leather factories, some people want to build crematoria, we have been blocked." Now there is a gap in the cover light, and more and more developments that do not meet conservation purposes in the future will lose its original value."

What discourages Tian Rizheng is that it used to be private development that threatened wetlands, but now it is government policy to paint a large number of "unfavorable farming areas", and abandoned land can be covered with photovoltaics. In the past, he encouraged villagers to participate in ecological compensation everywhere,"this wetland will make our village better" this set of words, but I don't know whether it can save people's hearts.

Villagers who believe in the vision of wetland conservation work together to build wooden bridges, but the photoelectric invasion makes people feel uneasy. (Provided by Tian Rizheng) Council of Agriculture: "Permitted use" belongs to the authority of local government

At present, companies are willing to communicate with wetland conservationists, but the photovoltaic threat is not limited to this. How many more development projects are under application in the vicinity? Become a problem that the Jackie Chan community and conservationists are eager to understand. However, this question has not been answered accurately from the local to the central level.

The Council of Agriculture has designated 38 "unfavorable farming areas" in Taiwan, of which the 11th and 12th areas (hereinafter referred to as Area A and Area B) are located in Chenglong Wetland. In 2018, after the Chenglong Community and the Tree Viewing Foundation made representations, the Agriculture Committee eliminated Area A and reduced the scope of Area B.

At that time, the official document of the Agriculture Committee announcing the exclusion of Area A was accompanied by a proviso. In order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the owners, from the date of announcement (March 16) to the effective date of May 15, the application for the development of ground-type photovoltaics based on "unfavorable farming areas" could still be accepted by the county government.

According to the COA press release, Area A was not available for development before the deadline for announcement under the "Unfavorable Cultivation Area" application. However, when reporters asked the Council of Agriculture recently, the answer was not so certain. Wang Yuzhen, deputy director of the Planning Department, said that when the dispute was set up in Area A, there were indeed some old cases waiting to be dealt with.

Wang Yuzhen pointed out that the main reason for excluding Area A was that the aquaculture operators in the area had expressed their views and that the exclusion was to preserve the production and breeding functions of the area, not solely for the conservation reasons of Chenglong Wetland. If a company sends a document to the county government before the effective date of the cancellation announcement, it must maintain the legal application right of the company based on the "trust protection principle".

The photovoltaic field on the north side of the wetland in Area A recently disputed is not a ground-based photovoltaic field, but a roof-based fish-electricity symbiosis developed under the name of "allowable use permit" for agricultural facilities. Wang Yu-chen explains that the operator first applies for permission to use the facility."Only after there is farming can we combine green energy facilities." The "permitted use" is directly authorized by the county government to review.