Focus
Preventing paradise lost
By Peng Yining (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-21 08:02
 |
Large Medium Small |
|
|
Former fisherman turns 'castaway' to save island from disappearing into sea. Peng Yining reports from Xiamen.
For more than 20 years Lin Beishui has lived on a remote islet in the Taiwan Straits like a modern-day Robinson Crusoe.
Without any electricity or clean drinking water on Eyuyu Island, the 56-year-old former fisherman has survived largely on the food he grows. His "best friend" is a battery radio and his only protection from typhoons that hit every year is a small brick shack.
Yet, his biggest challenge is preventing his home from sinking into the sea.
Official studies show that Eyuyu - or Crocodile Island - is shrinking by about 2 meters every year.
"The island's name comes from its appearance, but in the past 20 years the 'crocodile's tail' has completely disappeared," said Lin, who lives 30 minutes by boat from Xiamen in Fujian province.
"Almost a third of my island has already gone," he said.
Crocodile Island is roughly 100 meters by 700 meters, the equivalent of 10 soccer pitches, and its coastline of white sandy beaches can be covered on foot in less than 40 minutes.
Although 5 kilometers from the mainland, Xiamen's bright lights and skyscrapers are clearly visible from Lin's shack.
However, this leafy island paradise is slowly being destroyed by rampant soil erosion.
"When I arrived, there were only six banyans left. I watched as the waves took the earth away every day, turning the place into a desert," said Lin, who was recently joined on the island by his wife.
With help from an environmental NGO, he is now attempting to halt the erosion, and spends about 10,000 yuan ($1,500) a year on planting trees and cleaning up the garbage that washes ashore.
"I could make more money by fishing but I can't leave my island," he added. "People (in my native village) laugh at me but I don't care."
Fujian's coast has 1,546 islands larger than 500 square meters, including 1,444 that are uninhabited. According to official statistics, more than 100 islets have disappeared since the 1990s due to reclamation, soil erosion and over-exploitation.
Island retreat
Lin, a quiet father-of-two with short graying hair, arrived on Crocodile Island from nearby Qiongtou village in 1987 after suddenly losing his mother and two brothers.
It was a retreat, he explained. "I gave up fishing and stayed there for a couple of months to get me through that tough time. Later, I decided to move in."
In 1990, Lin left his wife and sons behind and rented the island from his village (he renewed that lease in 2000 for two more decades, paying 1,200 yuan a year).
"I thought I could live a free life and could earn a living for me and my family by farming on the island," he said. However, his first peanut crop was a failure due to the salinity of the soil.
It was not long before he noticed his new home was also shrinking. "I felt I was losing my island after losing my family," he recalled.
By the second year, Lin was planting Casuarina seedlings, an evergreen tree resistant to saline, on the beaches. Of the more than 20,000 he put in the ground each year, only hundreds would survive.
"They grew in the spring but slowly died in the tropical summer heat. By October, I was left with nothing," he said.
To make matters worse, in 1999 the island was hit by a fierce typhoon that uprooted more than 2,000 trees. Lin said he burst into tears the next morning when he saw the aftermath, including the tons of garbage that had been washed ashore.
Despite the setbacks, he remained upbeat and his island is now covered with trees and grass.
"At least I'm slowing the erosion," said Lin, who waters each plant and tree. "I have already paid dearly for this island, so I won't give up. If I did, all my effort will be in vain.
As well as money, he has also sacrificed his family life.
In past two decades, Lin has only left the island to collect food and water supplies, taking his motor-powered sampan to Qiongtou village and back in a couple of hours. Whenever he returns it usually resulted in an argument with his wife.
Lin told China Daily he spent money set aside for his sons' education to buy more seedlings for Crocodile Island.
His eldest son, Lin Dasheng, 28, said that, since the age of 8, he has been forced to live in an old, borrowed house, paying for school by selling crabs caught on the island's beach.
"My family complains all the time. For many years, my wife was too angry to come live with me on the islet," he said. "Other villagers said I am crazy. They call me 'Old Monk' for having lived alone on an island for so long."
Wu Lina, Lin's 56-year-old wife, finally agreed to join her husband in 2000. She now spends her days cooking and cleaning while Lin plants more trees.
"I don't have any other choice," she said. "It's our home now."
Lin family's main income comes from the 400 chickens they keep at their island farm. They make about 40,000 yuan a year from the 100 or so eggs the birds produce every day.
Seeds of hope
The central government in March this year introduced a law to regulate remote islands, stating that people who inhabitants need to register with local authorities and apply before carrying farming, fishing or planting.
Although the move is geared toward protecting the fragile environment of the country's islands, Lin is not in support.
"The government did nothing to protect my island. I don't have to report to anyone," he insisted.
Over the years, he has also resisted almost all offers of cooperation, including a 2.2-million-yuan offer from a Xiamen company that proposed developing Crocodile Island into a tourism attraction.
"They just want to make money. They don't care the island's future," added Lin.
The only help he has accepted is from China Mangrove Conservation Network. The NGO in 2008 drew up a protection plan that involved planting mangrove, a type of coastal tree, to conserve the shrinking beach line. The organization provided free seedlings and taught Lin how to plant.
"Lin accepts us because we want the same thing: to protect Eyuyu Island," explained Liu Yi, 28, director of the China Mangrove Conservation Network. "He can live on the island alone, but it's hard for him to save the island by himself."
Without action to slow soil erosion, the island will disappear, warned the environment activist, whose group has planted more than 100,000 mangroves on its beaches.
"Crocodile Island is just a small piece of land, but for Lin's family and the lifeforms that live there, it's the whole world," added Liu. "Our world is also an island but it's too big for people to understand that we are losing it."
The islet used to be covered by mangroves, but people destroyed them for dredging and fishing, which means the sea can now directly sweep away the earth.
According to the network, 90 percent of mangroves in Xiamen have disappeared because of reclamation, coastal real estate development and pollution.
China has already reclaimed a total of 13,380 square kilometers of offshore land and plans to reclaim another 5,780 square kilometers over the next decade, according to a report by the China Institute for Marine Affairs of State Oceanic Administration.
"The (target) number is almost half the total area (already reclaimed)," said Fang Qinhua, a professor at Xiamen University's oceans policy and law center. "The total amount of reclamation has increased sharply and some of the projects have adversely affected the coastal environment."
China Mangrove Conservation Network plans to transform Lin's island into an environmental education site. By using the shrinking island as an example of the ongoing global ecology crisis, the group hopes more people will learn the importance of conservation.
"Everyone will be shocked when they hear that such a beautiful island is disappearing," said network director Liu. "The island will only be saved when more people participate (in protecting it), especially the (Xiamen) government."
Lin, who keeps seven dogs to guard the island and deter fishermen from catching crabs and destroying his seedlings, said he welcomes the idea of more visitors to Crocodile Island. He has even offered to make a swing for tourists.
"It's my island I will never give up on saving it," he said. "After I die, my ashes will be buried here."
|
|
|
|
|
|
