TAIPEI (TVBS News) — TVBS sent employees into rice paddies in Yilan County (宜蘭縣) on Saturday (April 11) to count frogs and record species as part of a biodiversity volunteer initiative marking Earth Day 2026. Data collected through smartphone apps will feed directly into a global scientific database, turning corporate volunteerism into citizen science.
The initiative, organized by TVBS's sustainability brand TVBS GOOD, brought together anchors, artists and staff members at an organic farm in Yuanshan Township (員山鄉). Participants engaged in rice transplanting, invasive snail removal and ecological surveys. Volunteers documented 50 species during the event, including the Indian Spot-billed Duck (印緬花嘴鴨), flat snails (扁蝸牛) and giant darner dragonflies (無霸勾蜓).
"We are calling on our artists, our colleagues, and our anchors to take action together to care for the Earth," TVBS General Manager Sheena Liu (劉文硯) said. The event used iNaturalist, a global citizen science platform, to standardize data collection. Participants recorded species images, GPS coordinates and timestamps on their smartphones. The data will be uploaded to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an international database used by researchers worldwide for conservation and scientific studies.
"iNaturalist turns wildlife observations into meaningful data for understanding climate change's impact on biodiversity," TVBS Chief Correspondent Dimitri Bruyas said. "Wildlife observation empowers everyone to see, firsthand, the profound impact of climate change on our environment."
TVBS Sustainability Ambassador Kai Wen Chuang (莊開文) emphasized that environmental efforts require long-term commitment. "Working together for good should not be like fireworks. It should be a long-term effort. We still need to do much more to keep our sustainability going," Chuang said.
Liu noted that TVBS GOOD, established more than two years ago, has evolved its sustainability initiatives annually. The brand organized tree-planting activities in 2024, beach cleanups in 2025 and now rice paddy conservation in 2026. TVBS has also adopted the harvest from the volunteer event's rice fields through a contract farming arrangement to support organic farmers.
Chuang warned that biodiversity loss has reached critical levels globally, with forests disappearing at a rate equivalent to one football field every two seconds and 75% of land already degraded. "Once a species disappears, it's gone forever," she said, citing polar bears affected by melting ice as an example of climate pressure on wildlife.
Anchor Hsuan-Tung Wu (吳軒彤) expressed shock at the reproductive capacity of the invasive golden apple snail (福壽螺). "The golden apple snail disaster is worse than I imagined. A single egg cluster can hatch hundreds of snails," Wu said, adding that the experience made him resolve to never waste rice again.
Anchor Sandy Li (李作珩) reflected on the gap between classroom learning and fieldwork. "Reading about it in textbooks is completely different from actually going into the fields. Seeing farmers face the challenge of invasive species, I deeply feel that farming is not easy," Li said.
The event also featured celebrity chef Joung Ji-seon (鄭智善), known as the "Queen of Cooking" from the reality show "Open Fire, Start Cooking" (《開火開伙》). Joung led volunteers in making Korean rice rolls using locally grown organic rice. Other attendees included Taiwanese actor and host Johnny Yang (楊銘威) and entertainer Dora Hsieh (謝雨芝), as well as artist Poyu Lin (林柏妤). ◼