*3.5. Cultural Heritage, Identity Politics and Alternative Development: Study on the Changes of Indigenous Ecotourism in the Taroko Area*

Tourism activities based on indigenous traditional ecological knowledge continue to grow in Taiwan. This research has investigated the process of cultural heritagization and changing concepts of tradition. It also has sought the social origins of these changes within wider political and economic structures. Clifford [9,10] points out that the revival of tradition involves pragmatic selection and the critical reconfiguration of "roots". To treat traditions as historical practices does not simply mean to return to the past, but involves the origins of social transformation. Through prosperous ecotourism, indigenous culture and local knowledge are re-packaged as intangible cultural heritage, and may successfully create vernacular characters containing a potential path toward local subsistence economy and alternative development.

The research focuses on ethnic ecotourism in the Taroko(both Taroko and Truku refer to the same group and their area in eastern Taiwan. Taroko is usually used as a place name, as in the official spelling of the nearby Taroko National Park. Truku is more often used as the name of the people)area, a long-term study site for the researcher. Serial changes have been occurring over the past two years. Firstly, the financial assistance from the government to develop ecotourism induced further capital investment by private ecotourism operators and involved larger interests. Secondly, the new ruling by the Democratic Progressive Party-DPP government called for a transitional justice policy involving the legalization of hunting rights and instituting natural resource co-management between the state and indigenous peoples. Lastly, the long-term major project informant/participant in the Taroko area was elected to the township council, in addition to his relatively overlooked earlier position as the head of the local indigenous association. Through the process of studying heritagization of indigenous traditional knowledge in the development of ethnic tourism, particularly ecotourism, the project aimed at establishing a constructive dialogue between "traditional future," cultural heritage literature, and local practice for the consolidation of alternative development.

The local conduct of ethnic- and eco-tourism in Da-Tung and Da-Li communities has opened up an opportunity for Truku people to perform and reconstruct their cultural heritage. To comprehend and interpret the local environment as a way to revitalize traditional knowledge, is to transform cultural heritage into a living tradition. Both the tourism operation and the degree of heritage commodification are under indigenous control, resulting in a kind of solidarity economy among the communities involved. As such, indigenous peoples can take advantage of the development of ethnic tourism to revitalize traditional knowledge, an exemplary demonstration of the traditional future. However, there are growing concerns and challenges. First, the operating scale and the profit rate of ethnicand/or eco-tourism is not sufficient to support a family. Second, there is tension between different families operating ecotourism, because the distribution of public (communal) resources might endanger solidarity cultivated during the past few years.
