'More Proactive' Conservation Strategy Proposed for Hong Kong

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan proposed that a new, "more proactive" conservation approach for Hong Kong must be adopted — a pivot from its current passive approach.

Tse made the pronouncement on Saturday, July 30, in a media session where he said the new strategy should involve the identification of land that must be protected and the recovery of the lands that have been neglected or deteriorated, according to a government news portal on the same day.

Hong Kong's current conservation approach is passive, he was quoted as saying, which involves "assigning certain land to be undeveloped. For example, through the planning process, we may assign a certain piece of land to be a conservation area. In that area, no development will be allowed."

While this approach has served its purpose, Tse said that lack of management and attention has led to the deterioration of certain lands' conservation value.

In a more proactive approach, he said that lands with high conservation value should be identified and adjacent lands that have been neglected and have lost their conservation value be recovered.

"We should recover those areas so that we can form a contiguous and larger piece of land for conservation," he said.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department is currently doing a study on possibly implementing this new conservation strategy in the Northern Metropolis project, where a 2,000-hectare wetland park will be created once the protected land is ascertained.

"The boundary of the wetland park may not be the same as the current boundary of wetland protection area or wetland buffer area," he added.