In 2001, the year of international volunteers, the Construction and Planning Agency under the Ministry of the Interior established the Volunteer Alliance, in tandem with the country’s national parks, national nature parks, and metropolitan parks. Since 2001, each park administration office has been taking turns hosting the Volunteer Alliance Convention. This year sees the 17th Convention as organized by Taijiang National Park Administration (hereafter referred to as TNPA), and it is also TNPA’s first convention since its establishment.

Upon receiving the 2017 Volunteer Alliance Convention seal in August 2016, TNPA has sent out extensive invitations to its volunteering partners for the planning of the event. Eighty volunteers were estimated to be involved in the process. Supervising personnel, selected by the Head of the Convention, had intensive monthly meetings to discuss and plan the 3-day 2-night event, so as to allow volunteers from all over Taiwan to acquaint themselves with Taiwan’s 8th national park and explore Taijiang’s natural ecology, cultural and historic heritages and humanistic industries.

At noon, November 3, 2017, everyone gathered to dine together. After the meal, volunteers from all administration offices were grouped to visit four different scenic spots with guided tours: Black-faced Spoonbill (Platalea minor) Watching Pavilion, Black-faced Spoonbill Ecology Exhibition Hall, Anshun Salt Factory Site, Luermen Guildhall of Tainan, respectively. Each group was accompanied by 3 TNPA volunteers for on-site guided tour, in order to give everyone a preliminary orientation of Taijiang’s surroundings and the ecology of Black-faced Spoonbills.

At the opening party, Minister of the Interior, Jiunn-rong Yeh, gave his remarks stating that rarely did we get to have volunteers from so many administration offices convening in one place. And volunteers are national parks’ critical forces and most precious VIPs that have transmitted all their positive intentions of protecting the national parks to all over Taiwan. Wun-Long Hsu, Director General for Construction and Planning Agency was very happy to see the national park volunteers’ convention growing bigger and with more abundance.

On November 4, 2017, 200 volunteers from various national parks were grouped for four different routes according to personal will to go on the unique Taijiang experiential trip. Zhen Cui-feng, head of the TNPA Volunteer Alliance, said in an interview: the Convention this year has specially arranged for everyone to visit surrounding scenic spots with guided tours on the first day, followed by in-depth experiential visits on the second day, in order for every volunteer to be slowly and gently introduced to and immersed in the beauty of Taijiang National Park, what with its cultural, historical and ecological richness.

On November 5, 2017, the day of farewell, volunteers from various administration offices took turns going on stage to share their thoughts of volunteer services and training results. Representative volunteers from Shoushan National Nature Park as the next convention organizer cordially invited everyone to attend the 18th Volunteer Alliance Convention in Shoushan National Nature Park. The event drew to a perfect end with the TNPA handing over the Volunteer Alliance Convention seal to Shoushan National Park Administration.