Saving Xiaoliuqiu's Deteriorating Intertidal Zone — Please Support a Progressively Stronger Management System

The Editor says: Surveys have found that the average number of species and individuals inside Xiaoliuqiu's guided tour zones is about 30% lower than outside those zones, while biological density is roughly 80% lower. Beyond natural sampling variation and broader climate change, the environmental impact of tourist crowds is also a contributing factor. The Pingtung County Government has enacted relevant management regulations in hopes of mitigating the impact of tourism. Join the Editor to explore what else we can do together to help Xiaoliuqiu gradually recover its once-thriving ecosystem! Full text reprinted from: Prof. Chang Shui-Kai et al. — Saving Xiaoliuqiu's Deteriorating Intertidal Zone: Please Support a Progressively Stronger Management System

Xiaoliuqiu has long been a favorite destination for Taiwanese travelers. Its rich intertidal marine life and beloved sea turtles have made it famous, drawing ever-growing crowds year after year. To address the environmental impact of mass tourism, the Pingtung County Government announced the "Liuqiu Fishery Resource Conservation Zone" in 2014, and the following year jointly declared five intertidal areas as "Natural and Cultural Ecological Scenic Zones" together with the Tourism Bureau, establishing management regulations aimed at reducing tourism-related impacts.

Currently, only Shanfu and Yuchengwei have control checkpoints, using a crowd-flow management system that limits simultaneous visitors to 300 and 500 respectively (with a maximum of 30 people per group) within the scenic zones. However, the establishment of these checkpoints over the past few years has not produced the expected results for the intertidal zones. If anything, it has piqued visitors' curiosity, causing them to flock in during peak season. Tour guides, driven by commercial interests, frequently violate the 30-person group limit to accommodate excess crowds, while checkpoint staff often turn a blind eye and fail to properly enforce visitor numbers. During busy periods, the scenes can only be described as a sea of humanity. Over the past three years, daily visitors to the Shanfu intertidal zone during peak season have regularly exceeded 2,000, with monthly figures approaching 25,000. Combined with Yuchengwei, the total for July 2019 alone surpassed 30,000 people. That many people — 60,000 feet, plus countless hands touching and squeezing — not only flattens the intertidal substrate but crushes marine life underfoot. The crowds have been likened to "dumpling soup," and the management measures have been criticized as little more than window dressing.

After years of advocacy, the chaotic state of the intertidal zones has gradually attracted attention from various stakeholders and government bodies. The Pingtung County Government has been taking stock of the situation, and last June pre-announced plans to revise the conservation zone boundaries and management regulations. It also proposed designating the Duzaiping intertidal zone — one of the five Natural and Cultural Ecological Scenic Zones — as a conservation demonstration area, making it a year-round no-entry seed source protection zone. The hope was that, through full protection, ecological resources would generate a spillover effect and help improve the declining state of other intertidal zones. However, this proposal triggered local backlash, and a series of articles discussing intertidal zone management appeared in the media. One piece titled "Xiaoliuqiu Intertidal Zone Controls Spark Controversy — Local Operators Demand Review of Management Rules" highlighted the points of contention, including skepticism from some residents that management measures lacking scientific data on the intertidal zones would be hard to justify. In response, the Pingtung County Government secured funding and commissioned a research team from National Sun Yat-sen University to begin scientific surveys of the Shanfu and Yuchengwei intertidal zones starting in June, as well as to develop management guidelines for the county government's reference.

Uncovering the State of Xiaoliuqiu's Intertidal Zones — and the Hidden Toll of Tourism

From July to October 2019, the research team conducted benthic invertebrate surveys at both Shanfu and Yuchengwei. While a definitive conclusion will require continued monitoring over time, several important early findings are already worth noting. Among the key results: the average number of species and individuals within the guided tour zones — trampled by throngs of visitors — was about 30% lower than in areas outside those zones. Additionally, biological density at both intertidal zones was approximately 80% lower compared to a survey conducted during the same period in 2014 (carried out by the teams of Associate Professor Lo Liu-Chi and Assistant Professor Chen Wen-Rou). In other words, the tourist crowds of the past five years have caused a marked decline in biological populations. Even accounting for sampling variation and the effects of broader climate change, the estimated decline is at least 50%. This comparison uses 2014 — when Xiaoliuqiu received approximately 400,000 visitors — as the baseline. If 2009 is used as the reference point, when visitor numbers were only around 200,000, the reduction in biological populations would almost certainly be even more heartbreaking.

Water quality surveys have also shown that chlorophyll-a concentrations at the southeastern monitoring station off Xiaoliuqiu are higher than at other sampling points. Coral reef surveys reveal that algae coverage is four to five times higher than coral cover — or even more — likely due to excessive wastewater discharged by the island's many guesthouses. In September, bleaching was also observed in giant clams at Yuchengwei. All of these are warning signs that the natural environment is becoming increasingly inhospitable to intertidal life. If stronger intertidal zone management is not implemented promptly to reduce recreational pressure and physical trampling, and the ecological degradation continues unchecked, it is only a matter of time before a point of no return is reached.

Communication and Coordination: Building Consensus on Management

The problems facing Xiaoliuqiu's intertidal zones are long-standing. External pressures include an unmanageable volume of tourists and an excessive proliferation of guesthouses; internal challenges include conflicting opinions among local tour guides and a lack of coordination among government agencies. Although management regulations exist, they are riddled with loopholes and poorly enforced — issues that have been extensively discussed elsewhere (e.g., Lai Zhi-Peng, 2017). Some have suggested simply stepping back and letting things deteriorate completely, so that everyone will be forced to come together and find a solution. Others argue that the problem with the intertidal zones is not the regulations themselves but the people — and that no amount of rule-changing will help if the human element is not addressed. In contrast, many international cases of ecologically damaging over-tourism have been gradually reversed once governments stepped in with an integrated approach.

Does Xiaoliuqiu have a chance? After years of conflict and internal friction, hopes are high but momentum has been lacking. Now the county government has taken the first step toward a turning point. The research team has been communicating with local tour guide representatives and relevant government officials based on three guiding principles, working toward a set of management regulations with broad consensus before beginning implementation. These three principles are: "Set aside disputes" (such as the controversy over managing the Duzaiping intertidal zone); "Separate people from issues" (first negotiate management regulations that can be put into practice); and "Phased sequencing" (don't try to resolve everything at once — start with what is simple). In other words, begin with the management measures that are less contentious and more actionable, and then gradually address the "people" dimension of the problem as consensus is built and pilot efforts move forward.

Step by Step: Improving the Management of Xiaoliuqiu

By integrating case study literature with practical experience and suggestions provided by local tour guides, the research team identified 17 management issues (with over 40 proposed measures) across five categories: intertidal zone regulations, visitor management, checkpoint management, tour guide management, and guesthouses and other issues. These were then discussed with tour guides through workshops. After setting aside "people" issues and removing measures deemed impractical from either an academic standpoint or an implementation perspective (including technical considerations and impacts on operators), the remaining measures were classified into three tiers — "can be implemented now and refined later," "can be planned," and "pending discussion" — for the county government's reference. Due to space constraints, the following is a brief summary of the four main recommendations.

1. Recommend zoning management for the intertidal zones and the establishment of ecological viewing corridors. A protected area should be designated within each of the Shanfu and Yuchengwei intertidal zones to allow marine life to reproduce and thrive, with strict prohibition on human disturbance, thereby maximizing the chance of a "seed source dispersal" effect. Ecological viewing corridors would restrict the range over which visitors can walk, sacrificing small sections in exchange for protecting the surrounding environment — a widely used win-win strategy for conservation and economic sustainability (such as the ecological viewing corridor at the Fushan Protection Zone in Taitung). The goal is to preserve the visitor experience while giving intertidal organisms room to breathe.

2. Recommend prohibiting nighttime guided tours during the breeding season of intertidal organisms. Nighttime is when most organisms reproduce, and nighttime visits also raise the risk of accidentally stepping on and killing marine life. Although there have been calls for a blanket ban, no consensus has been reached, so the recommendation is to first prohibit nighttime tours during the breeding season. For nighttime tours outside of the breeding season, it is recommended that only red-light sources be permitted, minimizing the impact of artificial light on marine life.

3. Recommend strengthening crowd-flow controls in the intertidal zones. Although many international examples have demonstrated the effectiveness of total visitor caps (such as at Sipadan in Malaysia), and many operators in Xiaoliuqiu also support such caps, the current infrastructure is not yet in place to enforce them. In the meantime, strict enforcement of existing crowd-flow limits can serve as a temporary substitute for daily total visitor quotas, given that the time windows available for entering the intertidal zones are naturally constrained each day. Going forward, plans could be made to divert visitors to other land-based or marine activities to reduce the number entering the intertidal zones. A reservation or package tour system could also be developed to offer a more complete and refined travel experience.

4. Recommend researching the feasibility of charging conservation and guiding fees, along with supporting measures. Levying conservation fees can use pricing as a demand-management tool while generating revenue for conservation management and scientific surveys — an approach borne out by many successful ecotourism cases abroad. This represents a form of "additive management" for operators (tour guides and guesthouse operators), increasing and regularizing their income — as opposed to the "subtractive management" of other measures that restrict certain operator freedoms. It can also effectively reduce the influx of visitors brought in by guesthouses offering free tour packages. A reasonable "user pays" approach not only reduces visitor pressure but channels revenue back into checkpoint operations, resource surveys, and restoration within the scenic zones — making the concept of sustainability truly actionable.

Protecting Xiaoliuqiu's Ecosystem Requires Your Support

Regarding the establishment of ecological viewing corridors, the county government has already — earlier this year (2020) — invited the Penghu Marine National Park Headquarters (Peng-Guan), the Natural and Cultural Ecological Tourism Association, and academics to conduct on-site inspections of the Shanfu and Yuchengwei intertidal zones, and consensus has been reached on the protection zones, utilization zones, and guided trail routes. The prohibition of nighttime guided tours during the breeding season and the use of red-light sources at night will also be pushed forward. The long-criticized staffing situation at the checkpoints — previously filled on a monthly basis by the township office — has been replaced with dedicated full-time positions contracted by the county government through the association. The first retraining session for dedicated tour guides is also about to begin. The county government has also secured support from the Ocean Affairs Council to include the contested Duzaiping intertidal zone in a scientific survey program, providing a basis for future management decisions.

In addition to the county government's support, the Peng-Guan is planning to install a siphon seawater footwashing station at the Shanfu intertidal zone so visitors can rinse off the coral sand clinging to tens of thousands of feet before they leave. The agency has also begun exploring and discussing local opinion on the feasibility of levying conservation fees. The issue of improper conduct by certain tour guides — frequently raised in the media — will also be addressed by the Peng-Guan through broad stakeholder consultation, working toward the gradual establishment of a tour guide conduct framework. The latter two are sensitive and thorny issues that will require both courage and time.

Success must begin with consensus. Over the past six months of negotiations, we owe thanks to the many local tour guides who — preferring to remain unnamed — have devoted themselves to protecting the ecosystem, as well as to the persistence of the government agencies involved. Many technical issues remain to be resolved, and the "people" dimension of management — temporarily set aside — will require even greater wisdom and communication to address. It will test the government's resolve and demands the support of all tour guides and guesthouse operators. Xiaoliuqiu's intertidal zone conservation has taken another step forward. We hope that the residents, tour guides, and public officials who have fought for and quietly supported the protection of this local ecosystem will not lose heart, but continue to follow developments and offer their assistance from the sidelines. We also hope that everyone — individuals and visitors alike — who has in any way called for the conservation of Xiaoliuqiu's intertidal ecosystem will support the positive development of a sound management system, and offer greater encouragement to the government and the tour guides and groups working alongside it.

Editor: Jenny Tsai

References:

• Chen Yan-Ting (2019) Xiaoliuqiu Intertidal Zone Packed with People — Visitors Horrified by Ecological Catastrophe. Liberty Times

• Li Yu-Qin (2019) Xiaoliuqiu Intertidal Zone Controls Spark Controversy — Local Operators Demand Review of Management Rules. Environmental Information Center

• Lai Peng-Zhi (2017) Many Problems Plague the Management of Pingtung Xiaoliuqiu's Natural and Cultural Ecological Scenic Zones

Further Reading:

• Xiaoliuqiu's Marine Ecology on the Brink of Exhaustion — Tourism Resources Sound the Alarm

• Is Crowd Control Coming to Xiaoliuqiu? Kuan Bi-Ling: Ocean Affairs Council Ready to "Play the Bad Guy" if Necessary

• Worried That Lights Disorient Sea Turtles, Heron Island in Australia Adopts a "Lights Out" Culture — What About Xiaoliuqiu?