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Gardens
of Splendor
BY STEVEN CROOK
Visitors who tour Taiwan quickly realize it is both
densely populated and stunningly mountainous.
However, few outsiders know that mid- and high-
elevation forests dominated by hardwoods occupy a
third of the island, and that other large areas are
covered by conifers, softwoods, or bamboo. As a proportion of its
total land area — almost 59 percent — Taiwan has twice as much
forest as Norway.
Understanding what goes on in these arboreal realms and
educating the public about the ecological role of woodlands is the
job of the government’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute
(TFRI, www.tfri.gov.tw).
The institute manages eight botanical gardens plus several
learning centers. Five of the gardens were established during the
early years of Japan’s 1895-1945 occupation of Taiwan; the best
known and most accessible of these is just 2km south of Taipei
Railway Station. PHOTOGRAPHY: TOP PHOTO GROUP / IMAGE TAIWAN
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38 enVoyage
Taiwan
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