The Nature Valley Environmental Trust in HsinChu is the first environmental charitable trust in Taiwan.

Nature Valley, which is only about 1.8 hectares in size, has a very important purpose. The site is the very first registered environmental charity trust in Taiwan, and is designed to be an environmental education site, to be preserved forever and for everyone.

Nature Valley Environmental Trust was first set up in June, 2011. Three years after it was first established, it is welcoming a new trustee: Taiwan Environmental Information Association.

Our Goal

“Through buying this land, to be able to preserve the beauty and nature for future generations.” The land owners, who donated the land to set up the charity trust, also have dreams:

Preserve the biodiversity of the low-elevation forest ecosystem.
Develop Nature Valley into an environmental education site.
Cooperate with the local community, and merge the village into our environmental education site.
Expand the protected area.

What we do

Environmental Activity

We operate environmental experience programs, including “Environmental Charity Trust 101”, “Tree Climbing”, “Experience Living in the Wild”, “Bow Drill Fire Workshop” and “Monthly Free Nature Guided Tour”!

Environmental Education

We conduct education activities together with schools at all levels.

Volunteer Activity

Every Thursday is our Day of Volunteering, when volunteers help to maintain the nature trail, plant trees and plants, and remove bamboo and other advanced species.

Community Involvement

It is also one of our main goals to involve the community in our conservation work. We attend community meetings and other activities to build trust and connections with the local community. In 2013, together with other organizations and the local community, we stopped an inappropriate construction project, which planned to deforest a 72-hectare area.

International Exchange

The National Trust organization is celebrating its centenary in England. In Japan, our neighbor in East Asia, the charity trust has a history of more than 70 years. Here in Taiwan, we are still relatively young, and can learn from the experience of our international partners and strengthen our abilities. In 2011, the 10th Asia-Pacific NGOs’ Environmental Conference organized a visit to Nature Valley. TEIA has also been a member of the International National Trusts Organisation (INTO) since 2008. INTO’s members work to preserve both natural and cultural heritage all over the world, and this has given us access to more like-minded groups and people.

Taiwan Environmental Information Association (TEIA) was founded in 2000, and we have been dedicated to promoting the environmental charity trust ever since. We will soon be recruiting a new management team.

There are also other projects to be worked on in the near future:

• Ecosystem Survey and Ecological Monitoring
  To learn more about the inhabitants in this forest and to set up a forest restoration plan.
• Environmental Charity Trust Workshop
  Nature Valley is the first of its kind, but it is a step in the right direction. We are going to invite people from different backgrounds to study Nature Valley in many different ways, and to inform them about the use of a charity trust as a conservation tool in Taiwan.

Nature Valley Logo

To design a logo for Nature Valley to represent our values and mission!

Strengthen the Connection with the Local Community
Nature Valley is located in Hua-Long village. We will involve the community in environmental education and assist the children to discover the beauty of their hometown. We believe that this will start to encourage more local people to become actively involved in protecting the environment.

All of our achievements started with the landowners’ dream. They bought the land and donated it to set up the first environmental charity trust in Taiwan. Many people and organizations have been helping out immensely. We are most grateful, and would really like to see more “Nature Valleys”. To complete this mission, we will work on promoting environmental charity trusts. You are welcome to join us!