Every year on the third Saturday of September, it’s International Coastal Cleanup Day. Nine agencies collaborated with local community residents, including the Forestry Conservation Bureau’s Pingtung Branch, Chiayi Branch, and the Development and Management Office. Together, they cleaned up five conservation forests and their surrounding beaches in locations such as Checheng’s Haikou, Fangshan Coast, Fengchuisha, Kaohsiung Dagou Mountain, and Penghu Longmen Li Zhengjiao.
Today, the units participating in the beach cleanup include the Pingtung Branch of the Forestry Bureau, the Chiayi Branch, the National Forest Volunteers of the Second Branch, the Kenting National Park Management Office, the Maritime Patrol Directorate General of the Ocean Affairs Council, the Eighth Squadron of the Seventh General Team of the Police Administration, the Pingtung Office of the Southern District Branch of the National Property Administration, Checheng Township Office, Fangshan Township Office, and the Huxi Township Office of Penghu County, totaling 9 agencies. They collaborated with local community residents for this effort.
Beach after cleanup – calm and beautiful
The Pingtung Branch stated that today, with the participation of various agencies and community residents, everyone joined hands, donned gloves, and picked up trash bags to diligently collect and sort garbage under the conservation forest and on the beach.
The types of trash found were varied and included items like identification cards, wooden posts, syringes, bones, tires, car bumpers, salad oil barrels, and more. With everyone’s collective effort, the coastline was restored to its original beauty, reflecting a concrete action towards the commitment to protect the national environment.
The trash found during the beach cleanup was diverse, including animal bones.
The Pingtung Branch stated that most protective forests were designated successively since the Japanese colonial era and serve various public benefit functions, such as windbreaks, sand stabilization, water conservation, and preventing landslides.
The adjacent beautiful beaches are also places of relaxation and rejuvenation for many people. However, the presence of marine litter severely affects the environmental ecology. Besides trash carelessly discarded by the public, marine debris, influenced by typhoon circulation and ocean currents, accumulates items such as styrofoam, discarded fishing gear, plastic bottles and cans, and buoys. Since 2020, the Pingtung Branch has been carrying out the ‘Salute to the Sea’ project for 4 years. They have cleared approximately 1,386 metric tons of waste from the coastal protective forests, a staggering amount.
Beach cleanup at Checheng Haikou in Pingtung County.
The Pingtung branch stated that by participating in beach cleanup activities through public-private collaboration, they hope to raise public awareness about the importance of protecting the conservation forests. Through this, they aim to convey the significance of maintaining the coastal environment, emphasizing the functions of the conservation forests, safeguarding the coastline, and ensuring future generations can enjoy clean beaches and a healthy marine ecosystem.
Fengchuisha beach cleanup
During the beach cleanup, you can find all sorts of things, even an ID card.