Page 78 - Hualien Sustainable Living Bilingual Magazine

President Chao said,“For many universities, the focus is still on teaching, research, and service. Sustainability planning is not given much attention, let alone working on the SDGs.”However, he believes that universities have the resources and expertise to promote sustainability, and that it is even more important to pass on“sustainability thinking”to students on campus through general education. This would bring tangible benefits to the students, the university, and society in general. As a result of the university’s efforts, the Times Higher Education (THE) announced that NDHU was ranked 401-600 in the world by the University Impact Rankings in 2022. Among the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Indicators (SDGs), NDHU was ranked in the top 200 globally for“Ending Hunger”,“Affordable and Clean Energy”,“Marine Ecosystem”, and“Terrestrial Ecosystem”, as well as achieving good rankings for“Eradicating Poverty,”,“Reducing Inequality”,“Sustainable Cities and Communities”, and“Responsible Consumption and Production”. When it comes to terrestrial ecosystems, NDHU is collaborating with many international organizations, public agencies, and local governments to protect Taiwan’s mountains and forests. For example, NDHU has initiated the “The International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI)”with the United Nations Institute for Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) and the Japanese government, and has become the first member of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) in Taiwan. NDHU also collaborated with government agencies such as the Forestry District Offices under the Forestry Bureau and the Forestry Research Institute of the Council of Agriculture to establish the National Ecological Green Network and the Nature Conservation Network. In addition, students from NDHU also participated in the citizen science survey of the Taiwan Roadkill Observation Network in order to help prevent the tragedy of wild animals being killed on the roads of eastern Taiwan, which has caused endangered species to be pushed closer to extinction. The collected data was provided to the Endemic Species Research Institute (ESRI) in Nantou. The ESRI gathered the results of the survey and developed a roadkill app in cooperation with a startup company to remind people traveling to eastern Taiwan to drive slowly and do their part for the ecosystem. 73