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Have you heard of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Lifetime Achievement Award? The award is the highest honor bestowed upon an individual in the environmental protection field. The 2021 Taiwan Environmental Protection Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Huang Huan-Zhang, who is known as a “major pollution exposer” and the only environmental worker to win the award this year.
The Taiwan Environmental Protection Lifetime Achievement Award began in 2017 to encourage and recognize efforts and contributions made by senior environmentalists and those who have created outstanding achievements in the field of environmental protection. The qualifications are very strict. The nominees must have been involved in environmental protection movements for more than 20 years and must have made special contributions or set examples for future generations. This year, the only award winner was Assistant Professor Huang Huan-Zhang of the Department of Nursing, Chung Hwa University of Medical Technology. He cares about the environment and is devoted to the movements. He is a well-known environmentalist in Taiwan and has spent a long time focusing on environmental surveys. He exposes environmental pollution through scientific evidence and has created a deep impact in the field. He played an important role in exposing major pollution events, such as dioxin in Anshun, waste metals in Erren River, cadmium polluted rice in Houbi, Tainan, and the coastal landfill in Xinfeng.
Mr. Huang Huan-Zhang believes that environmental education must be conducted on the site of the environmental issue. The learning objectives must be helpful towards solving the problems. Therefore, in addition to teaching, he has long been devoted to the environmental education courses in Tainan Community University, and bases these courses on “protecting life.” He implements the ideal of protecting life in his efforts towards solving the dioxin problem in the Taiwan Alkali Anshun Plant, remediating the waste metals in Erren River, saving the habitats of zhangixalus arvalis in Sankandian, surveying and restoring old trees, long-term monitoring of beach waste, protecting the world-class natural scenery in Longci, and surveying industrial waste.
Mr. Huang Huan-Zhang established the Tainan Community University Environmental Action Team in 2011. The team expanded the land pollution surveys from Tainan to the other areas of Taiwan. The efforts of Huang Huan-Zhang and the Environmental Action Team can be found in Shimen Reservoir in Taoyuan, Senmaipi in Taoyuan, the most toxic coastline in Taiwan in Xinfeng, Hsinchu, incinerator sludge in Taichung, cadmium polluted rice in Houbi, Tainan, and dioxin infected duck in Daliao, Kaohsiung. His long-term advocacy of recycling management regulations and waste disposal regulations finally paid off with the passing of the amendments to the Waste Disposal Act by the Legislative Yuan on December 30, 2016. His long-term efforts and contributions towards environmental protection have earned him this award.
Starting in 2011, the Foundation has been working with the Tainan Community University Research and Development Association led by Mr. Huang Huan-Zhang. The partnership focuses on water resources and industrial waste pollution as the two main directions for environmental protection. For more stories about the partnership between the Foundation and the Tainan Community University Research and Development Association, please watch Protecting Taiwan’s Land and Water Resources.
Special note: The text has been obtained from the National NGOs Environmental Meeting Planning Committee press release. The photo was provided by Huang Huan-Zhang.