T

he Yellow Butterfly Valley, which the Meinung Water Reservoir would inundate lies in the northeast corner of Meinung Township, and it is the only complete intact low-elevation forest and river valley ecology which is near to the populated western part of Taiwan. It is the home of many assorted wild flora and fauna, for example, maroon oriole, Hodgson's hawk-eagle, and the hundred-pace snake, all categorized as the most endangered species and protected by Taiwan’s Wildlife Conservation Law, and further the precious and rare blue-winged pitta, Formosan Reeve's muntjac, crested goshawk, honey buzzard, serpent eagle, emerald dove, black-naped oriole, Formosan blue magpie, hwamei, large cuckoo-shrike, banded krait, turtle-designed snake, brown tree frog, etc. Based upon a survey by the Yellow Butterfly Valley Pittas Workgroup, the valley floor contains more than 90 kinds of birds and 110 kinds of butterflies. Such a variety and abundance of living things forms a Happy Green Isle.

Moreover, at the mouth part of theYellow Butterfly Valley, the Twin Creek Tropical Plant Nursery was built in 1935 by the Japanese Taiwan Forestry Administration for experimental plantation. They imported some 270 species of plant from the world's tropical areas, such as Southeast Asia, Australia, the Indian Subcontinent, South America and Africa. Today, there are 96 species surviving; 28 of them can only be seen in this nursery, and some are the only plant of the species in Taiwan.

Being a living forest museum, the Nursery is historically and ecologically significant. Its sunshine-haunted glade has become the first open theater in the woods on this island. Modern theater events, music performances and local art exhibitions take place. It is recognized as one of the most organic and eco-oriented public platforms in which the performers and audience both exchange their artistic perspectives.

The Yellow Butterfly Valley's silver veined yellow butterfly at its peak time can reach to more than 50 million in number: it is one of the highest density butterfly valleys in the world and East Asia's only ecotype butterfly valley. The yellow butterfly among the more than 110 different species of butterflies in the Yellow Butterfly Valley is not the most beautiful in color, nor is it only found in the valley, nor is it an endangered species. But nowhere else in the world do more than 50 million yellow butterflies congregate together. It is easy to see that the Yellow Butterfly Valley's ecology is very special, and in ecological studies it has an irreplaceable position.

The mother yellow butterfly lays her eggs individually on the leaves of the many Indian chestnut trees, because her young will use the Indian chestnut tree leaves as their food source.Three to five days later a gold colored translucent yellow butterfly caterpillar finally emerges after breaking through the eggshell. Commonly after emerging, the eggshell becomes the first meal of the caterpillar. Afterwards it uses new tender leaves of the Indian chestnut tree as food while gradually growing larger. In the process of growing, when the skin of the caterpillar can no longer contain the large body, the caterpillar will shed its skin, and sometimes it will eat it.

Shortly after shedding its skin a fourth time and becoming a forth stage larva, a mature final stage caterpillar will stop eating and start to search for an appropriate place for its chrysalis stage.Commonly it is in the extensive massive thicket below the Indian chestnut tress or on the backs of leaves in the dense shrubbery. Later it spews forth silk to suspend itself while peacefully awaiting the coming of the great transformation of its body. Actually at this time the body of the caterpillar curls and swells up; its legs have already degenerated, and its head portion changes to a fresh green colored smooth round head. The stage between the caterpillar and the chrysalis is called the pre-chrysalis.

Again peacefully waiting another short period of time, the new pre-chrysalis with its already transformed shape having a translucent surface shell that is still soft, smooth and seemingly moist, emerges from the old broken open skin and with a violent swaying motion shakes off the old skin and head casing. Another stage in the life of a butterfly the chrysalis starts from here.

The chrysalis shell slowly hardens and becomes opaque; on the surface the chrysalis neither moves nor eats and seems to be dead. Actually a new life is peacefully constantly taking form inside the chrysalis shell making good it preparation for the next stage of its life journey.

After the yellow butterfly chrysalis passes about 5 to 7 days of what seem to be hibernation, we can see faintly through the chrysalis shell signs of an already transformed mature insect with feelers, wings, long legs, and so forth. Later some day right before or after dawn, it will emerge from the broken chrysalis case capped in fresh yellow wings: this is called enclosion.

After enclosion the male butterflies often by the thousands congregate on the wet ground near water or on the mineral salt lined rock faces which are soaked with water to replenish their water supply and discharge body excretions. Sometimes they dart in and out of the chrysalis bearing areas to strive for the opportunity to mate with the newly emerged female butterflies.

Since there is a great disparity in the proportion of males to females with the male greatly outnumbering the female, the female butterfly often just after enclosion is completed will mate. After mating, the mother butterfly shouldering the responsibility of producing eggs often is active in the canopy of the Indian chestnut tree forest.

Of course regardless of male or female, the butterflies eat flower nectar to survive. On both sides of the river valley, many nectar bearing plants grow providing a nectar source.Consequently, we can see in the Yellow Butterfly Valley the yellow butterflies sporting together in the wilds among the flowers and plants.

In the Yellow Butterfly Valley, because of the preponderance of the Indian chestnut tree as a food source, the flourishing community of nectar bearing plants, the suitable weather conditions of the local climate and also because there is no large quantity of natural enemies to check the butterfly population, every year from about the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the Dragon Boat Festival, to the fifth day of the ninth lunar month , the population of the yellow butterflies multiplies profusely to reach its most exuberant peak condition; we call it the peak period.

During the peak period, the trees are covered with yellow butterfly caterpillars making efforts to grow; the caterpillars frequently completely consume all the foliage of the Indian chestnut trees leaving nothing but the trunk and branches silhouetted against the sky.

In the wilds the entire scene is nothing but the marvelous wonder of thousands upon thousands of butterflies dancing; they seem to be excitedly and eagerly rushing forth together to announce the birth of a new butterfly empire. At this time you can feel that you are in paradise.

The yellow butterfly ecology of the Yellow Butterfly Valley, besides being the world's number one in density during the peak period, also is presently Southeast Asia's only ecotype butterfly valley. The other butterfly valleys all belong to the type formed when butterflies congregate together to avoid the cold and pass the winter season or to the type formed when butterflies congregate together along a path of migration. Only the Yellow Butterfly Valley is an ecotype butterfly valley in which there are traces of the yellow butterfly the whole year round.

When the yellow butterfly passes the winter, it can extend the time of any of the four stages of development: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis or adult butterfly. For example the chrysalis stage or the egg stage will last until an appropriate growing season comes before it becomes active and continues the growth cycle again. This is the marvelous design of the creator's hand at work.

Although the Yellow Butterfly Valley has an extremely important value in ecological terms, the Taiwan government still intends to construct the Meinung Water Reservoir in order to meet the water needs of the petrochemical and large steel smelting plants and also include in that the water needs of the people. In order to reduce the resistance to constructing the reservoir, they had the impudence to write in the environmental impact statement for the reservoir the following: The Yellow Butterfly Valley does not contain any animals, which the Cultural Properties Preservation Law assigns to receive protection.

Even they plan to spend NT$200 million to move the Indian chestnut trees to the hilltops which the reservoir's waters would not inundate for they think they can in this way move the wonderful spectacle of the thousands upon thousands of butterflies dancing in the Yellow Butterfly Valley to another location so that both the butterflies and reservoir can exist together.

The government also hopes the people of Meinung and the reservoir can exist together: They do not have any plans to move the villages of the 50,000 people of Meinung Township that live below the dam within one and a half kilometers. President Lee Teng-hui moreover utilizes his political prestige to pressure the people of Meinung to tow the line by declaring that the Meinung Water Reservoir will definitely be constructed, without regard to the danger it poses to the Meinung Hakka community and Hakka cultural conservancy.

Over the long term the KMT government of Taiwan has only emphasized the foreign exchange brought in by logging trees and has ignored the preservation of water and soil and the decay of the self-regulating mechanism of the water resource; it has only been concerned about the rise and fall of the economic development indicators and has neglected industrial consumption of limited resources and the ensuing pollution that has lowered the quality of the living environment of the people. The government's administrative shortsightedness has brought about an ungoverned state of environmental exploitation causing Taiwan's ecology to fall into an irreversible circumstance.

The water resource of southern Taiwan under the effect of various elements, like the establishment of the Lin-Yuan Petrochemical Industrial Park in the 1970s, the expansion of metropolitan and industrial areas, the gradual population increase, water resource waste, and so forth, already is unable to meet the demand for use. Besides the fact that the government allows the pollution of the mainstream of the Kao-Ping River and that the watershed areas have been deforested only exacerbate the situation.

Under these conditions the government still encourages the petrochemical industry which consumes large quantities of water and power and is highly polluting. According to our understanding, the production of one ton of PVC plastic consumes 2,560,000 liters of water that is purer than what we drink. Recently the government is further actively promoting the establishment of the Binnan Industrial Park for large scale petrochemical and steel smelting plants in the Tainan Chigu wetlands as the most important project in all of Taiwan. Based upon a conservative estimate, the completed project would consume 320,000 tons of water a day, about 80% of the amount the 1.4 million people of Kaohsiung use everyday. In addition the 120,000 tons of water Tainan Scientific Park requires daily equals the amount of water consumed as if a city the size of Kaohsiung appeared out of thin air. Where will all this water come from? The government wants to construct a large scale reservoir covering Meinung's Yellow Butterfly Valley, Machia--the home of the only remaining Lukai Aboriginals and a few other inhabited nearby river valleys. And thus the minority Meinung Hakka families can only but with sadness rise up against the strong oppression of the government for the sake of their community and the continuation of their culture.

The Meinung Township in Kaohsiung County in the southern part of Taiwan is located on the banks of the Laonung River, one of the three larger tributaries of the Kaoping River. The Meinung River converges with Twin Creek in the Yellow Butterfly Valley and flows through the township and later enters another one of the major tributaries, the Nantzuhsien River.

The Taiwan government's plan for the Meinung Water Reservoir is to block off the upper reaches of the Meinung River at the mouth of the Yellow Butterfly Valley. And then they plan to excavate a water tunnel from Luiguei to Chiuchuang to channel the water of the Laonung River into the Yellow Butterfly Valley. And since the Meinung River's riverbed is insufficient to drain the overflow discharge, they plan to open a flood channel from the dam to the Laonung River.When this plan is completed, it estimated it would provide a storage capacity of 328,000,000 cubic- meter water and provide 1200,000 cubic meters of water daily. But because the forests of the upper reaches of the Laonung River have been cut down, its water has a high sand content; consequently the amount of sand collecting in the water reservoir will also be high. The planning unit estimates an operating life of 30 to 50 years.

The plan of the Meinung Water Reservoir calls for a large dam and foundation 147 meters high and 220 meters wide. The dam's distance from the nearest Meinung Township inhabitants, 2000 in number, is only 1500 meters. This certainly sets the world record for a large dam's closeness to an inhabited area. The entire township and nearby environs?safety will constantly lie under the looming threat of the reservoir.

More than 95% of the inhabitants of Meinung are Hakka. This presently in Taiwan is unique, as it is the largest concentration of pure Hakka in one place. And it has a great significance in the preservation and development of Hakka culture in Taiwan. But the cultural transmission that the Meinung Hakka homeland provides in Taiwan would be completely destroyed with the start of social change brought about by the construction of the reservoir. Undoubtedly this would be a great loss to cultural anthropology.

Of course the Meinung Hakka do not want the consanguinity and culture of their community to be sunk in the Meinung Water Reservoir; and they do not want the origin-site of their community and the place from where their legends sprang, the Twin Creek Yellow Butterfly Valley along with the yellow butterfly and numerous other plants and animals to be drowned in the reservoir and become sacrifices for the highly polluting, highly power consuming and highly water consuming petrochemical industry, and this all at the conspiracy of the government and business. Because of this, the people of Meinung tearfully rose up to seek justice for this land, people and culture.

Under the auspices of the local Meinung Association, The Yellow Butterfly Valley Workshop and other leading organizations, they implemented one demonstration after another. Because of the vociferous opposition of the Meinung townspeople, the Taiwan Parliament has continuously shelved the Meinung Water Reservoir budget proposal making the efforts of the Meinung people at opposing the reservoir successful up to the present time.

Yet the government has still not dropped the idea as the Meinung Water Reservoir Plan still exists. The government is only waiting for fatigue and a slackening of opposition to the reservoir to occur among the residents of Meinung. On the one hand, they use the profits of project subcontracting to buy over the local Meinung politicians in order to divide the unity and momentum of the anti-reservoir movement.

On the other hand, the government is misleading the residents of the metropolitan areas down river. They lead them to believe that the lack of water during times of water shortage is because the Meinung Water Reservoir has not yet been constructed, and that it is not related to the fact that the Kaoping River is polluted. Consequently this has led the 1.4 million residents of the Kaohsiung metropolitan area to oppose the fifty thousand culturally inferior Meinung Hakka.

Although the straitened funds contributed by the people and limited manpower must match the plentiful resources and manpower of national organizations and although the unfavorable situation is exceedingly difficult, the Meinung people are still holding onto their stiff-necked Hakka spirit and will contend to the very end with all their strength. They are waiting for other communities and groups to understand the reasons why the Meinung community opposes the reservoir and for them to lend moral and practical support.

They are not only unwilling for the Yellow Butterfly Valley to become a reservoir but further hope to go a step beyond by promoting the idea of turning the valley into the Yellow Butterfly Valley Ecology Park.

Thus starting in 1995, they instituted at the beginning of June, during the yellow butterfly's peak period, the Meinung Yellow Butterfly Day.

They set up a ceremonial table in the riverbed of Twin Creek, and officiate wearing traditional Hakka vestments, express the most sincere regrets to the yellow butterfly and the other animals which reside in the valley and suffer from human activity. They announce the cessation of human destruction of the environment and hope from this to rebuild a new equitable relation between humans and the environment.

They have formulated the Yellow Butterfly Valley Pact which calls people to respect the natural environment and protect wild plants and animals. They also launched participatory activities for people to restore the forest lands that have been damaged by going together to plant Indian chestnut tree seedlings and by participating in other recovery work for the Yellow Butterfly Valley.

In the past four years, the Yellow Butterfly Day has already drawn more than 10,000 people to show their concern for the future destiny of the Yellow Butterfly Valley. In one of the activities, the conservation balloting, the ballots of almost all the people who participated encouraged the establishment of the Yellow Butterfly Ecology Park and opposed the construction of the Meinung Water Reservoir. The Yellow Butterfly Day already has become known island-wide as an annual celebration and has drawn the attention of all sectors of the nation to focus on the Yellow Butterfly Valley Movement.

Some local residents in Meinung have volunteered to participate in environmental education programs organized by the Meinung People's Association and YBV Pittas Workgroup to be volunteer workers for theYellow Butterfly Valley. They lead people and children from the local community to walk in the wilderness and learn to enjoy Nature with environmentally friendly activities in theYellow Butterfly Valley.

Although the road is long and difficult, the people of Meinung hope their efforts will leave a fertile ground for the future of their community and culture, and will moreover gain for the animals that live in the Yellow Butterfly Valley a safe environment and living space. And they hope also to leave a Happy Green Isle rich in diversity for posterity's sake.

Please help ---

1. Inform others about the natural beauty of theYellow Butterfly Valley and its destined destruction.

2. Use any legal and non-violent approaches to prevent the Yellow Butterfly Valley from being dammed.

3. Try every means to conserve Yellow Butterfly Valley ecology.