tag:news.mongabay.com,2005:/xml/taiwan1taiwan news from mongabay.com2012-01-05T17:41:22Ztag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/89232012-01-05T17:16:00Z2012-01-05T17:41:22ZWill Taiwan save its last pristine coastline?<table align="left"><tr><td><img src="http://photos.mongabay.com/j/fidenci.taiwan.coastline.150.jpg" align="left"/></td></tr></table>Voters in the January 14 Taiwanese presidential election will decide the fate of the island’s last pristine wilderness known as the Alangyi Trail. Amongst the three candidates, only one (Tsai Ing-wen from the Democratic Progressive Party) may support the conservation of Alangyi Trail and its coastline. One of the top domestic stories of 2011 were the efforts by the Pingtung County government, indigenous tribes, and NGOs to preserve the Alangyi Trail, according to the Taiwan Environmental Information Center. Alangyi is now a major issue reflecting steadily growing environmental concern amongst the Taiwanese, but its fate is sadly uncertain.Jeremy Hancetag:news.mongabay.com,2005:Article/25902007-12-03T14:30:39Z2008-12-29T06:47:37ZEarthquake triggers decline in a frog speciesIn 1999 a 7.3 earthquake struck Nantou County at the center of quake-prone Taiwan. The earthquake caused considerable damage: over 2,000 people died and just under 45,000 houses were destroyed. It was Taiwan's strongest quake in a hundred years. The quake also devastated a subpopulation of riparian frogs, Rana swinhoana, which had been under scientific study for three years prior. This devastation allowed scientists the opportunity to study the population changes in a species affected suddenly and irretrievably by natural disaster.Rhett Butler