Title: Taipei Church Moves to Preserve a Footprint of the Creator
Taiwan Church News 2858, 4-10 December 2006
Reported by Lin Yi-ying, Written by David Alexander
Three years ago Su Ba-li and A Li-man, two members of Chung-ye Presbyterian Church in Eastern Taiwan borrowed 50 thousand Taiwan Yuan (roughly US$1,500) from a local bank, putting up as collateral a piece of woodland that they owned. Unable to repay the loan, they faced foreclosure, and the bank was moving to auction the land to the highest bidder. But the parcel is the location of one of the last remaining mid-elevation virgin Banyan forests on this island. The situation came to the attention of Taiwan’s Environmental Concern Association, which contacted the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT). It was quickly communicated to the Rev. Cheng Ing-er, pastor of Gi-kong Presbyterian Church in Taipei. His church’s board held an emergency meeting and decided to guarantee a loan of up to 200 thousand Taiwan Yuan as participation in an environmental trust to protect this treasure of God’s creation..
Before accepting a call to be pastor of Gi-kong Church, Rev. Cheng had served in campus ministries and as the programme secretary for Church and Society issues at the PCT General Assembly. He said, “Speaking frankly, Taiwan’s society is not particularly aware of the crisis regarding the land.” The piece of forest-land in question is on the western slope of Koan-shan in Taitung County in the administrative zone of Luanshan Village. It’s low elevation (only 1,100 meters above sea level) presents a unique environment, much of which was long ago logged off. The Church and Society Committee of Seven Stars Presbytery (in Taipei) have a support relationship with the Aboriginal Community Development Center in Taitung County. Some committee members visited Luanshan Village in November and returned telling their friends and colleagues in Taipei of having seen with their own eyes the footprints of God’s creative activity.
The residents of Luanshan Village, who are members of the Bunun Tribe, established their own Aboriginal Homeland Village Redevelopment Foundation to protect the natural resources in their area. In cooperation with the Environmental Concern Association they are developing an overall plan to suit the local ecology. They were particularly concerned about the current crisis regarding the piece of land about to be auctioned. Some feel that the intervention of churches and church related agencies in the “rescue” of the land to be a divine miracle, and want the land set aside not only for its own protection, but to serve as a place for spiritual renewal as well.
Assessors had visited the village and looked at the land several times over the last three years, during which the failure of the brothers to pay interest on their loan gradually increased their debt. As foreclosure loomed, estimates of the land’s value escalated. Should it have been purchased at auction by a tourism development company and re-zoned for construction and leisure use, its value would have been upwards of 45 million Taiwan Yuan. The village residents who now control its use through their redevelopment foundation are unwilling to see that happen to their tribal ancestors’ hunting grounds.
Half of the money for preservation came from the “Love Fund” administered by the board of Gi-kong Church (the other half came from the Environmental Concern Association and individual donors). Rev. Cheng said that the fund was established for just such situations as this. Though the congregation is neither big nor wealthy, it is a home of concern for all matters related to Taiwan and this nation’s people. God’s gift to the congregation is this care for the land. “But,” he says, “we see this as ‘throwing a brick to get back a piece of jade.’” That would be seen in an increased concern of people to protect and to save the land that God has given, and will be only seen over time.
Taiwan’s government does not yet have in place the laws under which land trusts can be established to preserve ecological treasures. The forest in Luanshan has been designated a “Woodland Museum” for the time being. Its preservation, for the time being, is a “spiritual trust” governed by the Bunun people of Luanshan Village. Rev. Cheng says that they should only consider changing the land use there after concerted prayer and reflection on the nature of their stewardship of this corner of creation.
For more information:
Taiwan Ecological Concern Association TEL +886 2 2369 9825
Gi-kong Presbyterian Church gikong@netown.org.tw
Chung-ye Presbyterian Church kanbudan@yahoo.com.tw