President Lai Directs Development of National Greenery System, Emphasizing Public Participation and Specialized Legislation

President Lai Ching-te stated that the "Climate Adaptation Green Shade Doubling Plan" should view urban forests and green spaces as resilient infrastructure safeguarding public health, and called for the establishment of a professional, long-term, and participatory governance system. To ensure the plan's long-term stability, he urged the Ministry of Environment, along with the Council of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Interior, to perfect the "National Greenery" system. This includes reviewing and revising relevant regulations and exploring the feasibility of enacting a special law to facilitate the plan's smooth implementation and sustainable promotion. He emphasized referencing international experiences, incorporating future climate scenarios into long-term planning and resource allocation, and steadily advancing this cross-ministerial, cross-generational national endeavor.

Lai noted that urban forestry is a professional and extensive national adaptation project. He requested Vice Premier Cheng Wen-tsan, the vice convenor of the committee, to oversee the Ministry of Environment's coordination with relevant ministries to establish specialized organizations, allocate professional personnel, secure stable financial resources, and collaborate with local governments to collectively "double the green shade." This initiative should be integrated into local governance priorities, with corresponding resources and maintenance personnel gradually allocated.

On the foundation of professional governance, Lai stressed the need to gather profound humanistic and social energy. He asked the Ministry of Environment to continuously invite participation from experts, scholars, and private enterprises to gain valuable experience. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Financial Supervisory Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Culture, and National Development Council, he called for the development of relevant incentive mechanisms to guide private enterprises in systematically investing ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) resources into green public welfare.

Lai expressed the desire to deeply embed this force into villages and communities, establishing diverse and stable networks to form sustainable and scalable social collaboration and business models.

Additionally, regarding the action plan completed by the Executive Yuan's "Cross-Ministerial Task Force for River Basin Management," the President stated the need to further implement systematic governance and create resilient corridors that coexist with water and possess natural regulation capabilities.

President Lai demanded that the Ministry of Economic Affairs take the lead in coordinating relevant ministries to follow evidence-based governance principles, precisely allocate resources, and invest in the systematic resilience construction of river basins. Concurrently, he urged guiding local governments to strengthen local management responsibilities and invest in maintenance capabilities to ensure that every project achieves maximum overall governance benefits.

He believes that river basin governance should further integrate "Nature-based Solutions (NbS)" as a core policy, building upon existing hardware engineering. Lai requested the Ministries of Economic Affairs, Agriculture, the Interior, and Environment to jointly implement watershed conservation, riverbank ecological restoration, and integrated hydrological system development, connecting river blue-ribbons with forest green-belts to enhance overall ecological resilience.

President Lai also mentioned that governance outcomes should be integrated with people's lives. Through urban flood detention and public space transformation, and based on regional conditions, composite resilient spaces with functions for evacuation, recreation, and cooling should be created.

Finally, Lai asked the Ministries of Economic Affairs, the Interior, and others to inventory disaster-prone areas, potential slopes, and monitoring data. This information should be incorporated into national land spatial planning and land use management applications. He also called for gradual promotion of information transparency and enhanced communication and advocacy for society from a precautionary protection perspective, further safeguarding people's lives and property and consolidating social confidence in national adaptation policies.