The Inception Workshop on APFNet Project “Demonstration of Sustainable Upland Agroforestry Systems in Chinese Taipei” was successfully held in Taipei, 26-29 September 2011. A 4-person delegation from APFNet attended the workshop.

Mr. Li Taosheng, Director General of Forestry Bureau, COA, Chinese Taipei and Mr. Huang Yuxing, Director General of Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TFRI), Chinese Taipei addressed the workshop on behalf of project Executing Agency and extended their warm welcome to the APFNet delegation and appreciated APFNet approved the project. Mr. Qu Guilin, Director General of the APFNet Secretariat, firstly, expressed his gratitude for Chinese Taipei’s support in the First APEC Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Forestry which was co-organized by APFNet. He figured out that this project was a pilot project of Chinese Taipei and will be executed by TFRI, the design of project should be in line with current demands of forestry development in Chinese Taipei. APFNet will provide finance and technique supports to help Executing Agency achieve the project objectives and popularize their achievements and experiences to other economies of APEC. Mr. Qu Guilin emphasized that “Demonstration of Sustainable Upland Agroforestry Systems in Chinese Taipei” will be a high quality pilot project that is rich of demonstration significance. He hoped that the project Executing Agency could be able to management processes, e.g. ecosystem protection & economic development, long-term interests & short-term interests, overall interests & partial interests appropriately and manage project in an innovative mode, really motivate the local community to make sure the project be implemented successfully. Over 50 participants including specialists from National Taiwan University (NTU), Chinese Forestry Association (Chinese Taipei), officers responsible for forestry of local government and forestry farmers had an in-depth communication in the workshop.

After the workshop, the delegation visited TFRI, agroforestry areca plantation in Nantou county, upland agroforestry tea plantation and agroforestry coffee plantation in Hualian City.
 
The first Project Steering Committee (PSC) meeting was held in Taipei. The meeting adopted the PSC’s member composition, responsibility and project management staffs. Director of project executing agency introduced the overall work plan & first year work plan of the project and PSC deliberated the work plan. APFNet delegation attended the meeting as an observer. The delegation give a positive evaluation to scientific project design and put forward some reasonable recommendation in pilot site selection, activity arrangement, project management and use of the budgets.

The Project of “Demonstration of Sustainable Upland Agroforestry Systems in Chinese Taipei” is granted by APFNet and implemented by TFRI. The total budget is US$537,000, among which US$400,000 is granted by APFNet. This 2-year duration project aims to demonstrate the ability of agroforestry systems in preventing the destructive landslides and massive surface erosions on cultivated uplands, develop the criteria and indicators for evaluating the sustainability of such agroforestry management systems and encourage the communities of mountain villages to participate in the development of new agroforestry system(s) and take part in the dissemination of new technologies.