Delonix Regia Forum Brings New Ideas from Satoyama Green Inside Project Encourages Ecological Tourism
2014/09/16
TAYA Pristine Homeland foundation's Delonix Regia Forum was held at NCKU Magic School of Green Technologies in the morning of the 13th. This year's forum features the theme: "Beauties of the Environment" that encourages businesses to adopt sustainable business models so that more people may learn the beauties of nature and human culture. Mr. Taku Yamada, founder of "Chura-boshi Company," was invited as guest speaker to share with the audience on how he had applied his expertise in ecological tourism to boost local economy. During the Green Inside Project session held in the afternoon, Zhang Huanjia was named winner of this year's Southern Spirits Award and a NT$300,000 prize for his "Yunlin Biodiversity Tour."
Delonix Regia Forum, now in its third year, is a program that advocates environmental friendliness in every aspect of daily life from food, clothing, living, traveling, education, to entertainment. It invites experts from various fields of expertise to discuss actual practices. The 2014 event featured an "educational" theme, for which Mr. Taku Yamada, founder of "Chura-boshi Company" and his work partner - "Satoyama Office" project manager Kenji Yanagi - were invited to deliver a speech here in Taiwan. Mr. Yamada once worked as a business consultant in the U.S and Japan. In 2007, he and his wife co-founded "Chura-boshi Company" in Furukawacho, Gifu Prefecture, that specializes in organizing professional ecological tours. He is renowned in Satoyama for having revitalized the local economy.
The success of Satoyama has recently gathered attention in Taiwan, and gave rise to different practices at different locations. Therefore in addition to the speech, the organizer invited several people of similar expertise to exchange their methods and experiences, including: iLOHAS founder Baggio Chang, President Yu Chi-Wei of L-instyle Boutique Travel Services, Principal Wu Maocheng of Tainan Community University Taijiang Campus, and Managing Director Chang Yu-Huang of the Foundation of Historic City Conservation and Regeneration. The participants all agreed that respecting the local people, culture, and heritage are what responsible tourism is about.
The Green Inside Project session soon followed in the afternoon at the same venue. To facilitate learning, the selection process progressed with an open audience for the very first time. Each competitor was given at least 10 minutes to express their views. This year's "Southern Spirits Award" (i.e. the grand prize) had three contestants, and all 5 juries unanimously named Zhang Huanjia the winner of "Southern Spirits Award" and the NT$300,000 prize for the high sustainability of his "Yunlin Biodiversity Tour," and his extensive contribution to environmental education and the local environment.