To commemorate the 50th World Environment Day this Wednesday, the Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association (TMI Trail) announced the launch of the nation’s first-ever website aimed at trail conservation on Tuesday.
Built in collaboration with 40 groups in environmental conservation, mountaineering, and other fields, the Taiwan Trail Stewardship website allows hikers traveling mountain trails to submit reports if they discover safety hazards.
The Taiwan Trail Stewardship interface (https://itrail.tw/) allows the user to easily use their mobile device to report locations of trail hazards, including uploading photos for trail degradation, soil erosion, or damaged facilities. If Internet access is limited in the area, the website automatically saves the report data to be uploaded when connectivity is restored.
Using aerial photography, TMI Trail discovered that Taiwan’s mountains and trails are deteriorating at a faster rate compared to ten years ago. Since international travel was limited during the pandemic, hiking and walking paths saw increased traffic that accelerated this deterioration. Frequent natural disasters have further contributed to the accumulated damage. TMI Trail Deputy Chief Executive Officer Hsu Ming-chien (徐銘謙) pointed out that sections of the Shimenshan Trail, the Jiaming Lake National Trail, and other mountain trails above 3,000 meters have eroded to the extent that hikers must go around them.
Chairman of the Chinese Taipei Alpine Association Huang Pan-Nan (黃楩楠) stressed the importance of hiking safety, and expressed his hope that all hikers would make use of the Taiwan Trail Stewardship website. He encouraged the public to report any damaged trails or directional signs so that they can be repaired as soon as possible.