Page 89 - Hualien Sustainable Living Bilingual Magazine

Many native Taiwanese tree species, such as Taiwan cycad and Taiwan date palm, are planted in the green afforested land of Chung Hwa Pulp Corporation (CHP) in eastern Taiwan, which covers nearly 1,000 hectares. Over the past decades, this has gradually created a high level of biodiversity. Many shrubs, ferns, mosses, mushrooms, and other plants and fungi grow intermingled, and wild animals live and breed in the forest, enriching the entire ecosystem of the area. The creation of this forested region was only possible because CHP also considered the issue of sustainable forestry during the process of making paper. Consequently, the company simultaneously carried out afforestation efforts, turning the paper industry into a carbon-sequestering green industrial chain.“Based on the area of CHP’s afforestation in Taiwan, the total amount of carbon dioxide absorbed is about 175,000 tons, which is very beneficial for carbon credits and carbon neutral sustainability.”Qiu Yi-Sheng, director of CHP’s Hualien Plant, said that CHP has been examining the issue of global sustainability and has collaborated with the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and the forestry departments of local universities for many years to collect hundreds of species of Taiwan’s native trees, including endangered species. After years of cultivation, the forest now has an abundance of flora and fauna species, thereby creating biodiversity. Nowadays, logging no longer takes place in forests in Taiwan. Instead, imported plantation wood chips are used to make pulp, which is then sent to paper mills for processing, turning it into the raw material used for paper products in our daily reading, copying, and household uses. 84 Hualien Issue