Located on the border between Shuishang Township and Taibao City in Chiayi County, Tugou Village is made up of the two settlements of Upper Tugou and Lower Tugou. It is a typical farming village suffering from population drain, left with only the elderly and children, and its living environment has steadily deteriorated. The county government once planned to build a garbage dump here, provoking strong protests from the villagers and awakening their environmental awareness. In recent years, as the government has vigorously promoted community empowerment and local residents have become more conscious, the Upper Tugou community began community building in 1998.
They renovated the village environment, dredged the ditches, and planted water candles, turning the once foul-smelling, weed-choked drainage into a clear “creek” that shows signs of life. They also planted milkweed and lantana to beautify the area. Monarch butterflies unexpectedly appeared; because the milkweed is also called the butterfly tree, its flowers secrete sweet nectar that provides food for the butterflies, attracting them to Upper Tugou. The villagers therefore decided to grow large numbers of milkweed to restore the butterfly population. Thanks to media coverage, the name “Butterfly Village” quickly spread.
1999 was the peak year for butterflies. Events such as “Butterflies Come to My Home” and the “Rapeseed Festival” were held one after another, sparking a wave of community visits; more than 200 communities came to see the village, successfully making Upper Tugou’s Butterfly Village famous. In recent years, however, the butterflies no longer dance in the village, because parasitic wasps have invaded and disrupted the butterfly ecology. The wasps lay their eggs inside butterfly chrysalises and slowly devour the larvae, so that what finally emerges from the chrysalis is not a butterfly but a wasp. Although it is regrettable, the image of an aging rural village has been transformed; a new rural atmosphere has emerged, and the goal of environmental beautification has been achieved.
In 2006, the community received sponsorship from the 2006 Shin Kong Mitsukoshi “One Community, One Family” program and a subsidy from the Forestry Bureau’s Community Forestry program. They will transform the 1.8 km Taiwan Sugar narrow-gauge railway that runs between Upper and Lower Tugou into a green ecological education park, linking the two settlements with a village-circling “Butterfly-Loves-Flowers Trail,” and create a “Soaring Butterfly Spirit Icon” to give the community more diverse functions in ecology, recreation, sports, and education, and to provide the public with a better place for weekend leisure.