How to lose a habitat in 5 years: trial and error in the conservation of the Farmland green tree frog Rhacophorus arvalis in Taiwan

Taipei Zoo, Taipei Zoological Foundation, the Wild Bird Society of Yunlin and the Farmers' Association of Gukeng Township worked as a team to raise funds for the conservation of the Farmland green tree frog Rhacophorus arvalis. However, after 5 years of giving farmers subsidies to maintain bamboo bushes on their land, the area of the frog's habitat had decreased by more than 50%. This was mainly the result of a change in crops grown on the land, because as the farmers aged they were increasingly unable to carry out the heavy work involved in bamboo growing and they were only being paid low prices for their bamboo‐shoot crops. Taipei Zoo and Taipei Zoological Foundation are still working on the conservation of this frog species but we have changed our methods. Instead of giving subsidies to farmers, we are now working to develop a green‐label certification system and ecotourism.