Communicating environmental protests: the National Rescue Chilan Cypress Forests Campaign in Taiwan

Abstract

The National Rescue Chilan Cypress Forests Campaign between 1998 and 2000 was one of Taiwan's most high-profile environmental movements. The campaign began as a concerted effort to put a stop to the operations implemented by the Veterans Affairs Commission, the managing authority of the old-growth forests in Chilan. The environmental activists then went on to demand a new national park in the area, which was approved by the central government in 2000. Focusing on the ways in which activists articulated the rationale for their protest against a seemingly technical issue, this discussion centres on the discursive themes in the activists’ narration of relevant events and environmental history of endemic cypress forests. Drawing on Luhmann's thinking, it argues that an assessment of such discourses should take into consideration the protest/issue distinction specific to modern social movements.

Keywords:

• protest
• nature
• Taiwan
• Luhmann

Acknowledgements

I thank three anonymous referees for their constructive comments. Thanks are also due to Raymond Bryant, as well as to the editors of Environmental Politics for their assistance.

Notes

 1. It should be noted here that the claim that the VAC had been extensively logging (caifa) the Chilan forests under the ‘cover’ of snag removal, and therefore had breached the 1991 Executive Decree, is a difficult one to prove. Were the so-called ‘logged’ trees in the category of snags, the VAC's actions did not constitute a violation. For comparison, the opinion of the Control Yuan's (1999) final report in this respect differed from the account of the campaign activists. After several on-site examinations the Control Yuan investigators did find administrative failings surrounding snag removal operations, and propose relevant corrective measures accordingly. Environmental activists took this as a step towards victory and reprinted the full text of the report in the second volume of the Dossier (Chen et al. 2000, pp. 129–134). However, it seems that they failed to notice that, concerning whether the VAC had intentionally logged live old-growth cypresses, the Control Yuan (1999, p. 6) found no evidence suggestive of such misconduct. This finding in actuality decisively undermined the activists’ most important charge against the VAC in the early stage of the Chilan Campaign.

 2. A professor of ecological studies in Providence University and a central figure in the Chilan Campaign, Chen Yu-feng has been an outspoken ecologist long engaged in many environmental protests, especially those concerning conservation matters in highland areas and the protection of the island's existing primary forests. He is also the founder of Taiwan Ecological Studies Centre (now Taiwan Academy of Ecology), a non-governmental organisation devoted to the promotion of ecological research and environmental education.

 3. For comparison, see also Rossiter's (2004) discussion of such ecosystem arguments in the protest against logging in ancient forests in British Colombia, Canada.

 4. For a similar assessment, see Wang et al. (2003).

 5. For instance, see the VAC's revised management plan in 1999 (later revised and published in 2003), as well as DPP Legislator Tang Jinn-chuan's speech during asession in the Legislative Yuan (1999).