| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立暨南國際大學 === 社會政策與社會工作學系 === 106 === The environmental rights, which is considered as the Fourth Generation of Human Rights, has been gradually deprived in this era. Recently, “PM2.5”has become a popular topic as more people are becoming aware of the health hazard issues cause by air pollution. Unfortunately, such problem does not only affect in the western plains of Taiwan but also many others area such as the smog occurring in Puli Town, Nantou County. In November of 2014, because of the increase in awareness of air pollution which caused concerns to residents who had the heart to protect their homeland, the local community in Puli decided to set up the “Puli PM2.5 Reduction Association (PPRA)” which initiated a series of environmental protection programs. The PPRA is an unregistered and informal community organization formed by a group of volunteers. As a researcher who has been participating since the organization’s initiation, I have devoted myself in a series of activities, environmental education advocacy, and teaching plan regarding air pollution. All of these activities have received many positive responses from the community. Furthermore, the cooperation between the National Chi Nan University and PPRA had promoted the act of reducing air pollution into another level; such as bringing up the awareness in other townships in Nantou as well as connecting and pouring more resources to the organization itself.
Environmental advocacies itself not only influences the government or entrepreneurs in a direct way, it also builds up community awareness. How can PPRA members better utilize resources to interact with the government and the community in a way that will affect government guidelines and decisions? Under current restrictions and limitations, what difficulties and challenges will PPRA encounter? The purpose of this study is divided into two parts: (1) to understand the history of PPRA, the development of its action strategies, the challenges or dilemmas it faced, and the reflections and observation of the core volunteers; (2) to understand the motivations of core volunteers, their environmental experiences, and the feedback and feelings regarding its growth. Through a more comprehensive description, and a deep analysis and investigation of the PPRA, I hope to give some concrete suggestions to other similar advocacy groups as a reference. I also hope that people will gradually value such environmental issues so that more social workers will be willing to devote themselves into the advocacy and education of protecting our environment.
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