'Forest Grandma' seeks council seat in fight against Kaohsiung deforestation

FEATURE/'Forest Grandma' seeks council seat in fight against Kaohsiung deforestation

By Sean Lin, CNA staff reporter

At 83, Chiang Huang-nu (蔣黃女) is taking her fight to save a forest in Kaohsiung's Qiaotou District to a new level, seeking a city council seat to help stop a government-led development project that she fears will devastate the local environment.

Nicknamed "Forest Grandma" by local residents, Chiang is campaigning against Phase III of the Kaohsiung New Town development, a 219-hectare project that would transform woodland into residential and commercial areas.

Under the development plan, several roads would be built, including a 60-meter wide one that would bisect a forest to connect the residential and commercial areas established in Phase I with the Qiaotou Industrial Park built in Phase II.

The National Land Management Agency (NLMA) says the project is intended to meet anticipated demand for housing and business properties as the government develops a semiconductor supply-chain cluster across Kaohsiung, Tainan, and Pingtung and Chiayi counties.

The Phase III plan in Kaohsiung's Qiaotou District would involve clearing about 154 hectares of trees, according to data cited by opponents of the project.

In July, the Ministry of the Interior's urban planning committee approved the revised plan in principle. The agency said it expected to acquire the land for the key roads by the end of 2027, before proceeding with land expropriation for development work.

As part of Chiang's efforts to push back against the plan, she is seeking a seat on the Kaohsiung city council in the Nov. 28 local government elections.

As a city councilor, she said, she could use her oversight powers to press the Kaohsiung mayor to address concerns about the project's ecological impact. The mayor or deputy mayors could then relay the residents' concerns to the central government, she added.

"We see this as a preservation campaign," said her son Chiang Yao-hsien (蔣耀賢), a cultural and historical activist commonly known as Jungle Chiang.

"The ward chiefs claim that there is 90 percent public support for the development project," he said. "Well then, Mrs. Chiang's campaign will serve as a referendum on the deforestation plan."

A forest at risk

One area of central concern is a 1.8-hectare woodlands near Xingtang Elementary School. For residents of Qiaotou, the neighboring Zihguan and Gangshan districts, and the Kezailiao neighborhood, it is a recreational area where many of them walk daily, Chiang Huang-nu said.

The planned 60-meter-wide road would run in front of the school, potentially endangering schoolchildren and older residents, she said.

She also argued that the forests are more than just recreational areas, as they help protect local residents and their properties from flooding.

"Without the forests, there would be floods, and people would suffer," she said.

Between 2010 and 2012, the 154-hectare low-lying woodland near Dianbao Creek was planted as part of Taiwan's effort to contribute to APEC's goal of increasing forest cover by 20 million hectares in the APEC region by 2020.

Chiang Huang-nu said she could recall what it was like before the trees were planted in the area.

"During the rainy season, when the creek overflowed, water would pour into people's homes, the flooding would get so high ... they didn't even have a place to cook," she said.

According to Jungle Chiang, the government's development plan involves raising and paving the land along both banks of the middle section of Dianbao Creek, potentially weakening the area's flood resilience.

The NLMA, however, says the revised plan would turn the existing forest area into a 21-hectare park with a detention pond, incorporating tree-preservation measures and green corridors to improve the area's water- retention capacity.

Whether those measures would adequately address the concerns raised by environmental advocates remains a key question.

Cultural heritage and wildlife at stake

The controversy extends beyond the forest itself to the area's ecological diversity and industrial heritage.

Chuang Chieh-jen (莊傑任), an environmentalist and secretary-general of the Forest City Association Taiwan, said the development would threaten the habitats of fireflies and at least eight protected bird species in Taiwan.

Among the bird species he identified are the crested serpent eagle, ring-necked pheasant, emerald dove, collared scops owl, and black-naped oriole.

The plan also threatens a historic narrow-gauge railway that dates back to 1907 and was used to transport sugarcane during the Japanese colonial era, Chuang said.

About 1.2 kilometers of the 1.5-kilometer line extending from the sugar refinery would be removed, leaving only a short section, which raises questions about the line's future use, activists said.

The NLMA, meanwhile, says the revised plan would fully preserve the 21-hectare Qiaotou Sugar Refinery cultural landscape, including the workers' dormitories. Another 19 hectares have been designated for tourism development, it said.

Questions over housing demand

Beyond the environmental and cultural concerns, there is the question of whether the development is needed at all, activists said.

Phase I of the project, completed in 2008, has attracted only a fraction of the 54,000 residents the National Land Management Agency had hoped to accommodate, Chuang said.

As of August 2020, Phase I of project had brought in around 8,000 residents, according to the agency. The population of that area had grown to around 12,000 as of March 2026, data from the Kaohsiung City government showed.

Phase II, which includes a 45.6-hectare residential area planned for an estimated 22,000 residents, remains largely vacant, Chuang said.

Kaohsiung's population has been in decline for 10 consecutive years, he said, also citing a National Development Council projection that Taiwan's population will be nearly halved by 2070.

"So why do they still want to turn a national forest into a residential and commercial zone?" he said. "Where is the demand?"

Government defends revised plan

The NLMA says, however, that the project is intended to accommodate workers and businesses associated with the area's expanding high-tech industries.

The plan was substantially revised after consultations with local groups and nongovernmental organizations, with the aim of balancing environmental protection and cultural heritage preservation against the need for housing, business facilities, and transport infrastructure, the NLMA said.

It described the affected woodland as a short-term, artificially planted commercial forest rather than a natural forest, saying it does not help with soil and water conservation.

Under the revised plan, the forest would be transformed into a 21-hectare park with a detention pond and green corridors, and trees would be preserved where possible, the agency said.

Those measures would help retain water, create urban green space, and improve the local environment, it added.

The plan also includes major connecting roads and an interchange serving the Qiaotou Science Park, which would help ease long-standing traffic congestion in northern Kaohsiung and support the development of nearby industrial areas, the NLMA said.

For Chiang, her son, and other opponents, however, the central question remains whether the proposed infrastructure and housing justify the loss of woodland and the potential effects on local wildlife, flood management, and cultural heritage.

With the development plan approved in principle, Chiang is now seeking political leverage, using her election campaign to challenge the claim that the project is necessary for Qiaotou's future.

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Source: Focus Taiwan