Niaosong Wetland Park

Volunteer Organizations of Niaosong Wetland Park

Chart of Volunteer Organization	Varieties of Volunteers	Types of Volunteers
Volunteer Recruitment Information	Benefits of Serving as a Volunteer

Niaosong Wetland Park is administered by Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau and Construction and Planning Agency Ministry of the Interior. After adopted by Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society, the Society has been doing the maintenance and management jobs of the Park. To manage Niaosong Wetland Park, in addition to applying for collaborative manpower from multiple employment programs monitored by Ministry of Labor, the Society also recruit many volunteers to help maintain the Park. The following is an introduction of its volunteer varieties and their job contents:

I. Chart of Volunteer Organization

II. Varieties of Volunteers

Adult volunteers:

At present, aduly volunteers in the Park area are about 40 people. There is no special limit as to who can become the Park’s volunteers. Those who like to do service to others are welcome.

Student volunteers:

Niaosong Wetland Park cooperates with some junior and senior high schools and colleges, giving students opportunities to become habitat volunteers to gain experience of being volunteers in their free time. Most of the student volunteers are from Cheng Shiu University and Kaohsiung Medical University.

Scouts volunteers:

Cooperating with some school scouts clubs, like Ocean Heart Scouts Club from Yang Ming Junior High School, the Park recruits its scouts volunteers. They sometimes come to the Park to give their helping hands as habitat maintenance volunteers.

One-day volunteers:

Niaosong Wetland Park is now pushing “One-day Volunteer Activity,” encouraging all families to take their children to the Park to experience how to maintain the Park, like getting rid of giant Amazon snails. Moreover, the Park is now carrying out a working holiday volunteer program, holding activities, such as rice harvesting activity, to give families and their children a chance to participate.

Social work service:

The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office detains some inmates with puny crimes like slight drunk driving. Not eligible to be put in prison, they asked to do social work service. We also welcome them to help maintain the Park.

III. Types of Volunteers

Habitat maintenance volunteers:
	Niaosong Wetlad Park needs habitat maintenance volunteers every day to mainly take care of the removing of exotic species and maintenance and management of the Park. The coordination and arrangement of the manpower is majorly done by the organization in charge of multiple employment programs. The Director-general of Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society takes the responsibility of supervisory management.
Mothers Butterfly:
	They are mainly in charge of the repopulation of butterflies and the cultivation of their fodder. Usually, butterflies turn into pupae in relatively hidden places, not easy for common people to detect. Mpthers Butterfly in the Nature Center will take butterfly eggs home to nurture, raising them from the stage of larvae to the stage of pupae. When they become pupae, the Mothers Butterfly fix them on the tree branches of the Nature Center. By so doing, visitors to the Park can appreciate the process and sight of turning from pupae to butterflies in the Nature Center.
Commentary volunteers:
	They perform their duty mainly on Sunday afternoons, giving free tours to visitors to have a better understanding on Niaosong Wetland Park and introducing common species. During workdays, interested visitors have to make appointments in advance. Then Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society will make a schedule to assign commentary volunteers to lead the tours.
Volunteers on duty:
	Some on-duty volunteers from Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society are stationed outside the Nature Center, answering questions from visitors coming to the Park and assisting in selling books on ecology and ecological observation objects. The arrangement of on-duty volunteers is mainly performed by Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society and afterwards gives beforehand notices to the volunteers concerned.
DIY volunteers:
	Niaosong Wetland Park holds a monthly DIY activity, teaching visitors how to make natural eco-friendly products or Nurture seedlings by using seeds, wood chips, art appliances, and recycled objects. Then the end-products will be displayed in the Nature Center for charity bazaar sale or the visitors can take them home. The arrangement of DIY volunteers is mainly performed by Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society and afterwards gives beforehand notices to the volunteers concerned.
Research volunteers:
	Research volunteers assist Niaosong Wetland Park and Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society in carrying out natural ecosystems surveys, like how many plant and animal species, mainly drangflies, plants, insects, and birds, there are in the Park as well as flowering seasons. There are also water testing volunteers to detect the water quality of the Park. The surveys of insects and birds are once a month, while those of dragonflies are twice a week. The arrangement of research volunteers is mainly performed by Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society and afterwards gives beforehand notices to the volunteers concerned.

IV. Volunteer Recruitment Information

The volunteer recruitment information will be made public in the mass media. Those who are interested can apply and register to Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society and Niaosong Wetland Park personnel. The society will hold a 2-day training camps to train the will-be volunteers of the Park.

V. Benefits of Serving as a Volunteer

Student volunteers can accrue their volunteer service hours, while adult volunteers can develop healthy bodies. They both can also make many friends and learn a lot of useful knowledge on ecology. For example, some volunteers are housewives, originally knowing nothing about plants or insects. After working as volunteers of the Park, they become ecological commentators, upgrading their self-confidence and improving their lifestyles.

There is a volunteer who is a cancer victim, undergoing chemotherapy. He was once very sick. Whenever he was not too weak to walk, he came to the Park, working as a volunteer. When he came to the Park for the first time, his hair was totally gray. But after one or two years, now his hair turns mostly black. And what’s more, he is in good physical condition. To him, being a volunteer of the Park is the best reward.

Mr. Lin Chung-an (a fixed-point commentary volunteer):
	Mr. Lin joined Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society in 1992. He just retired from his workplace. Having more free time, he comes to Niaosong Wetland Park on Mondays and Thursdays to serve as a fixed-point commentary volunteer. Before his retirement, he worked for a chemical plant. At that time, Mt. Shoushan was a control area. And the public kept asking for the lift of the control. Meanwhile, the Society was recruiting the first commentary volunteers. Because Mr. Lin is a mountain guide who finds many places in Taiwan are seriously damaged. Grasping this wonderful opportunity of teaching people the importance of natural conservation, he applied and received a short-term training.
When I gave oral explanation to visitors to Mt. Shoushan, Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society was still at the stage of bird watching, not energetically participating in natural conservation. As soon as the activity was completed, the narrator group was dismissed. After all the comings and goings, it occurred to me that since so much time had been spending on studying Mt. Shoushan, why not focus on introducing it to the public?As a result, I resigned from all mountain guiding schedules. With several people with the same viewpoints, we joined Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society to do some promotion. Though we were not used to so many commentary works, we formed a consensus: “Ther are no bird watching without good surroundings.” We didn’t leave Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society until 2001. During this long period of time, I had learned much about ecology, plants, insects, and birds, including their habits. People in the bird watching field often say that through commentaries you understand, through understanding you love, and through loving you have the power to protect. With the same perception, I’ve tried my best to love and protect animals and plants and their living environments.
Mr. Liou Ruei-cheng (a habitat maintenance volunteer):
	Before his retirement as a public servant, Mr. Liou had spared his free time to work as a volunteer. Now he is a habitat maintenance volunteer in Niaosong Wetland Park, in charge of tidying up the surroundings, spreading manure and planting trees. He is also a volunteer in some other organizations.
With a history of 18 years being a volunteer, I love nature on one hand, and on the other hand, I hope to spread the small seeds of ecological conservation ideas in Taiwan to more people, making them pay more attention to present situation of Taiwan’s ecology. To me, time flies when I act as a volunteer because I myself can also gain knowledge on plants, insects, and geography from nature. When presiding commentary sessions, I often acquire different ideas and experiences through interaction with visitors.
Ms. Chen Yu-ting (a one-day volunteer):
	Coming from Taipei, what made Ms. Chen happiest was that she met many people of Kaohsiung when she first came to Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society working as a volunteer. The biggest lesson learned for her is that she really learns a lot from Niaosong Wetland Park. She can also perceive the passion and dedication that they have shown.
I really love to get close to nature, which gave me impetus to act as a volunteer of Niaosong Wetland Park. I was a school teacher, having retired. Occcasionally, I come to the Park to perform my volunteer work. I’m now learning from Mr. Liou about everything concerning the Park, especially environmental maintenance.
Mr. Yang Kung-chuan (a commentary volunteer):
	Ten years ago, when Mr. Yang took a walk in Niaosong Wetland Park, he saw a lot of the Wild Bird Society members doing plant observations, observing at the same time discussing. Because of curiosity, he did the observations with them. He found that they were all really resourceful, being very knowledgeable. Thus, he decided to be as good as them, knowing a lot on ecology and nature. After consulting some members of the Society, he knew that the Society are in short of volunteers to perform the worklaods of guided tours and a variety of other activities. So he applied and took part in commentator camp. About three months later, he had learned some basics of the Park, which made him more interested. From then on, he kept learning from doing volunteer routines and from other commentators, acquiring more knowledge gradually.
Because of living in the neighborhood of Niaosong Wetland Park, I went there often, doing ecological observations and listening to lectures. When I was free, I went to the library, reading and borrowing books concernign ecology. After becoming a volunteer of the Park, I’ve been taken charge of river management, plant maintenance, and tree pruning for ten years.
Ms. Chang Chuan-yuei (an ecological touring volunteer):
	Ms. Chang is a primary school teacher. She joined kaohsiung Wild Bird Society in 1996. Because of feeling interested, she participated in commentator training program in 2002. Though she finds individual power puiny, she still wants to become a cog in the machine, performing her due function.
Ms. Chen hsiou-hua (a commentary and general affairs volunteer, also an ex-General Commander of volunteers):
	Ms. Chen joined Kaohsiung Wild Bird Society because she identified with its ideas. As a commentary volunteer, she has developed more ideas about the earth. Being a volunteer is actually devotion. What is most important to Ms. Chen is “Be willing to do, be happy to bear.”

Source of Information: Integrated from interview draft

Source of Pictures: Self-photographed