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202501/11
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency (FANCA) and the Railway Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the construction of a low-carbon railway station at Taiwan Railway Tianzhong Station today (01/11). The MOU was signed by FANCA Director General Lin Hwa-Ching of the FANCA and Railway Bureau Director General Young Cheng-Chung of the Railway Bureau. Tianzhong Station will become Taiwan’sthe first low-carbon railway station in Taiwan built with domestic timber, becoming a demonstration site showcasing Taiwan’s move towards sustainable low-carbon development. This was also the first cross-departmental collaboration between Taiwan’s transportation and forestry sectors. Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-Kai, Changhua County Magistrate, and many other distinguished guests attended the event in person.
The newly constructed Tianzhong Station, which will use domestic timber for the main structure and renovation, will become the starting point of the Taiwan Railway Jiji Branch Line. The design will showcase imagery of wood culture. It will have a wooden platform canopy to echo the wooden elements on the station’s facade and interior decoration, allowing passengers to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the Jiji Branch Line’s past as a major timber industry hub while transferring during their journey.
The FANCA stated that railways are a form of low-carbon transportation. If renewable timber can be used in the construction and renovation of stations, carbon emissions during the construction process can be reduced. However, 97% of the timber in the Taiwan market is still imported, of which at least 30% comes from natural forests in tropical countries. Therefore, Taiwan should make good use of its own plantation forests and rationally increase the domestic timber self-sufficiency rate to avoid the energy consumption and carbon emissions of cross-oceanic timber transportation. Doing so can also help safeguard the precious natural forests in tropical countries. Therefore, the FANCA declared 2017 as the “Year of Domestic Timber,” and is committed to revitalizing the domestic plantation forest industry and increasing the domestic timber self-sufficiency rate.
Lin Hwa-Ching, Director General of the FANCA, pointed out that the FANCA has developed a traceability QR code system to represent legal timber, while all national forests under its jurisdiction also obtained the FSC international forest certification in 2024. This collaboration with the Railway Bureau will introduce domestic timber into the construction and renovation of a Taiwan Railway station. In the future, both the wooden structure and interior decorations of Taiwan Railway Tianzhong Station and the new Tianzhong Station will all use FSC-certified domestic timber. Passengers will not only get to enjoy the warm ambiance of wood, by scanning the traceability QR code on the wood, they will also be able to find out the origin of the timber.
The FANCA also explained that since forest carbon sinks are trees that absorb carbon dioxide and then fix and preserve the carbon in the wood, they have the effect of carbon sequestration and carbon substitution. The FANCA's "Taiwan Forest Products Carbon Sink Calculation Platform" will allow for the calculation of total carbon sequestration in the timber used in new stations built by the Railway Bureau. In addition to quantifying the carbon reduction benefits of new construction projects, the platform will also serve as a source of effective climate and environmental education for passengers.
The FANCA and the Railway Bureau will continue to work together to promote more low-carbon railway stations that use domestic timber sourced mainly from sustainable plantations, striving to achieve environmental sustainability and net-zero carbon emissions in Taiwan.