IPSI Collaborative Activity Proposal Form
The following form is for use when submitting proposed IPSI Collaborative Activities for consideration by the IPSISteering Committee. See the Collaborative Activity Guidelines on p. 3 for more information.
Please return the completed form to the IPSI Secretariat (isi@unu.edu).
IPSI Collaborative Activities are the activities that shall be undertaken by more than one IPSI member
and constitute an important part of IPSI activities with the purpose of fostering collaboration within theIPSI membership and implementing the IPSI Strategy and Plan of Action. The IPSI Collaborative
Activities shall be developed and implemented with the endorsement of the Steering Committee inaccordance with the Collaborative Activity Guidelines. Resource mobilization for IPSI collaborative
activities shall be the responsibility of the implementing members in principle. – IPSI Operational
Guidelines, Chapter 5.4
Date of Application:2016.09.30

Project title:
Integrated project of enhancing ecoagriculture and sustainable development of rural Taiwan throughinternational cooperation
Collaborating organizations (IPSI members):（*Please underline the leading organization)*Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station, Council of Agriculture, Taiwan(HDARES)
National Dong-Hwa University(NDHU)
Other contributing organization(s) (including IPSI non-members):
Council of Agriculture, Taiwan(COA);
National Taiwan University(NTU);
Miaoli District Agricultural Research and Extension Station, Council of Agriculture, Taiwan(MDARES);
Chinese Taipei Committee, International Commission on Irrigation Drainage(CTCID);
Agricultural Engineering Research Center(AERC)
Expected term (e.g. 1 January 2014 – 31 December 2015):
1 June 2016– 31 December 2020
IPSI strategic objective(s) addressed (tick all that apply; see p. 3 for more details):■

1. Increase knowledge and understanding of SEPLS■

2. Address direct and underlying causes responsible for the decline or loss of SEPLS■

3. Enhance benefits from SEPLS■

4. Enhance human, institutional and sustainable financial capacities

Continued on next page.

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Description of the activity:
Please provide as much information as possible on: Background Activities (including site locations if applicable)
 Expected outcomes Actors and task sharing
 How the activity relates to the IPSI Strategy and IPSI Plan of Action
 Resources, funding Monitoring and reporting
1. Background and goals
The global population has grown rapidly while the agricultural production environment of food supply issuffering from uneven development between urban and rural areas, rural traditional culture loss, degradationof agricultural production and ecological environment and food safety crisis due to the impact ofmodernization, climate change and conventional farming methods. Application of massive fertilizers andpesticides reduces the biological diversity and brings about the degradation of ecosystem services; climatechange makes rainstorms and droughts more frequent and intensive, which negatively affect the agricultural
water supply safety as well as the water quality. Faced with such situation, the agriculture in advanced
countries has already been working on ecologically friendly agriculture while Taiwan is just in the starting
phase. In order to promote ecoagriculture and sustainable rural development with the help of international
cooperation, this integrated project will especially learn from the idea of ecosystem services andagrobiodiversity, develop innovative policy, strategies and measures suitable for landscape-scale andcommunity-based farming in line with relevant international instruments through taking part in IPSI, IUCNand LEGATO project (Land-use intensity and Ecological Engineering – Assessment Tools for risks andOpportunities in irrigated rice based production systems).
Therefore, the goals of this integrated project are as followings:
Learn from innovative international concepts and contribute Taiwan’s experience to international societies
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Explore relevant policies and strategies for revitalization of socio-ecological production landscapes in ruralTaiwan
Develop innovative agricultural technology and farming practices to increase agrobiodiversity andproductivities of paddy fields while maintaining ecosystem services provided by surrounding landscapesEnhance adaptive capacity of rural communities through collaborative planning and management
2. Activities
This integrated project will be led by Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension
Station(HDARES) and implemented cooperatively by involving National Dong Hwa University(NDHU),
National Taiwan University(NTU), Agricultural Engineering Research Center(AERC), Miaoli District Agricultural
Research and Extension Station (MDARES), Chinese Taipei Committee, International Commission onIrrigation Drainage(CTCID). The framework for collaborative research is like the figure below. The main
research strategy is to combine efforts of social science and natural science studies with a focus of enhancing
landscape resilience and community adaptive capacity that can be learnt especially from relevantinternational institutions such as IPSI, LEGATO, UFZ, University of Tokyo and the water conservation
organization ICID. The five research strategies and related important tasks are as below:(1) Increase the diversity and resilience of agricultural production landscapes (HDARES, NTU, andMDARES).
 Research the current situation of agricultural landscapes resource and the situation of landscapefragmentation in east and west of Taiwan.
 Study the impact of different farming methods on the agricultural biological diversity of paddy fields
and create the index database for in east and west of Taiwan.
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By means of international communication, study the ecosystem service and assessment technologyof the paddy fields and landscapes in east and west of Taiwan.
 Establish paddy fields and landscapes for other crops to increase the diversity of habitats.
(2) Increase agrobiodiversity of paddy fields and enhance ecosystem services by habitat restoration withinand surrounding the farmlands (HDARES, NTU, MDARES, and CTCID).
 Create diversity and abundance of the pests and their natural enemies on the paddy fields.
 State the connection between biological diversity index and the quality and quantity of rice.
 Test the influence of habitats management on the food chain (net) on the paddy fields and state theoperating mechanism.
 Conduct the survey measurement on micro climate of paddy fields, active radiation ofphotosynthesis and rice sampling.
 Figure out the water demand difference of crops on the paddy fields under ecological engineeringand conventional farming.
(3) Enhance adaptive capacity of rural communities through collaborative planning and multi-stakeholderparticipation (NDHU and NTU).
 Choose case study areas with satoyama-like, satoumi-like and satochi-like landscapes in eastern andwestern rural Taiwan; conduct participatory action research for increasing adaptive capacity of ruralcommunities.
 Develop workable indicators of resilience in socio-ecological production landscapes for evaluation ofcurrent situation and monitoring of future progress Develop feasible frameworks for planning and management of community-based ecoagriculturedevelopment.
(4) Explore relevant international policies for promoting ecoagriculture in Taiwan (NTU and CTCID).
 Analyze the international policies and strategies of ecological agriculture and grasp the dynamictrend.
 Analyze the differences between the ecological agriculture policies and strategies at home and3

abroad and put forward the coping strategies.
 Analyze the water resource changes in specific situations and put forward the restoration andmanagement measures of coastal wetlands so as to improve the efficiency of water control.
 Through international communication, develop innovative method for water management during dry
period.
(5) Learn from innovative international technology and practices and contribute Taiwan’s experience tointernational societies (HDARES, NDHU, NTU, and CTCID).
 Hold international seminar to share the experiences on the implementation of ecological agriculture
policies and strategies so as to establish cooperative mechanism.
 Conduct training in the form of workshop on the practice, case and tool of ecological agriculture
strategies.
 Interview the internationally famous ecological agriculture program execution organizations andestablish follow-up cooperation.
 Enhance the quantity and energy of academic activities among organizations and countries, display
the research achievements and become outstanding in the international field.
3. Expected outcomes
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Create the index database of biological diversity on different paddy fields and landscapes, and understandthe mutual impact between the paddy biology and surrounding landscapes so as to provide information
for the pest control of epidemic prevention units and farmers. Through this it indirectly helps the farmers
reduce 20% of pesticide because of the construction of ecological environment.
The paddy field living environment can increase the diversity and abundance of beneficial insects for one
to two times, thus maintain the ecosystem service and indirectly increase farmers’ harvest on the cropproduction.
Create agricultural biodiversity index and provide the monitoring results of the specified species to policy
makers for them to make environmental management measures suitable for the situation of agriculture,
which indirectly increases the public’s awareness on protecting the environment by 10%.
Complete the analysis on the irrigation water volume of paddy fields under ecological engineering andconventional farming; develop localized intelligent irrigation methods which are suitable for water
resource and ecological environment; make production policies for planting suitable crops on suitable
fields; apply systematical automatic monitoring equipment to improve the strategies of water-use
efficiency and the harvest on crop production. Provide the above strategies to competent authorities likethe Department of Irrigation and Engineering and the agricultural and food agency for them to conduct
the implementation. Provide relevant test research institutes to promote environmental management
system.
With the planning method of landscapes orientation and diverse parties of rights and interests, assist
three rural communities planning and implement the ecological-agriculture-based leisure agriculture tour
through various forms such as ecological and cultural tourism, ecological agriculture education andinterpretation and farm experience, which indirectly facilitates the job opportunity of the community(activate the human resource of the community) and other relevant benefits.
Establish the ecological agriculture cooperatively management model suitable for the rural areas in east
and west of Taiwan and the resilience index monitoring tool of the agricultural production landscapes,
which indirectly promotes and implement this concept in three communities and increase thecommunity’s support to this value.
Develop innovative method for water management during dry period of the agricultural ecology in dry
seasons at home; research the water environmental changes under different situations so as to put
forward the restoration and management measures of coastal wetlands as well as the measures forrational utilization, and the advice which facilitates the contingency management units such as theDepartment of Irrigation and Engineering to improve the efficiency on comprehensive water control.
Promote the technical research and development on the sustainable development of rural areas and4

ecoagriculture of Taiwan internationally and the cultivation of talents, and increase international support
to Taiwan’s research on eco-agriculture.
4. Actors and task sharing
Academics: Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station is the project leader andcoordinatorGovernmental Institutions: Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan is the key project supporter
IPSI members: National Dong-Hwa University
IPSI non-members: National Taiwan University; Miaoli District Agricultural Research and Extension
Station; International Commission on Irrigation Drainage; Agricultural Engineering Research Center
5. How the activity relates to the IPSI Strategy and IPSI Plan of Action
According to the five target strategies and expected results of this integrated project, it can cover thefour strategies of IPSI and the prior measures a to h which comply to IPSI plan:
Increase the diversity and resilience of agricultural production landscapes: fIncrease agrobiodiversity of paddy fields and enhance ecosystem services by habitat restoration withinand surrounding the farmlands: dEnhance adaptive capacity of rural communities through collaborative planning and multi-stakeholder
participation: b, eExplore relevant international policies for promoting ecoagriculture in Taiwan: aLearn from innovative international technology and practices and contribute Taiwan’s experience tointernational societies: a, c, g, h
6. Resources, funding
The financial resources for conducting this collaborative project will be mainly from Council ofAgriculture, Taiwan; The budget for this four-year collaborative project is about US$ 3,000,000
7. Monitoring and reporting
Annual Project Progress Reports will be submitted to the Council of Agriculture and will be available
online (in Chinese). We will be keen to share important findings and progress to IPSI Secretariat and relevant
conferences and workshops.
Photo 1 Example of satoyama-like landscapes as case study areas

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Photo 2 Example of satochi-like landscapes as case study areas

Photo 3 Example of satoumi-like landscapes as case study areas

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