Wild About Hong Kong - hiking, wildlife, conservation and more
Wild About Hong Kong - hiking, wildlife, conservation and more
Here’s something I wrote recently, at request of Coalition for Sustainable Tourism. Came after some years railing against batty local regulations, that mean officially can’t accept freelance tour guides in Hong Kong. A Proposal for Fostering Ecotourism in Hong Kong,…
Why is it microbiologists seem so ignorant of evolution and so forth? Too many seem to treat viruses as chemicals, not lifeforms subject to evolution. Ah, isn’t ignorance bliss, especially when you’re an “expert”. Today’s (6 Jan 2009) South China…
The Hong Kong Government seems to be downplaying or misinformed about the health impacts of our air pollution, Chief Executive Donald Tsang has even said: “It is a question of visibility.”
Hong Kong Wetland Park is a curious place – with little wetland, excess dryland and an outsize visitor centre with exhibition areas like scifi scenes. I headed to the Hong Kong Wetland Park a few days ago – in 2008,…
WWF Hong Kong has launched a Save Our Seas campaign, aimed at combatting over-fishing. Just produced a short video, filmed by Hong Kong Outdoors contributor Charles Frew. You can watch the video online, including on YouTube: WWF Hong Kong SOS…
Back from Day 2 (of 2) of the workshop at the University of Hong Kong – and, for me, a marked improvement on yesterday afternoon, when I thought we mostly got lost in the models. Some good info today; inc…
Possible ways to clean indoor air a little. Prompted partly by reading info such as: ‘According to an article in “Heart,” the journal of the British Cardiac Society: “Epidemiology has clearly shown a link between increases in particulate air pollution…
The Tai Po Kau (大埔滘) Nature Reserve is a splendid example of reforestation.
Visitor accommodation in village houses just might prove a viable alternative to having some of our finest areas threatened by schemes that may reap financial rewards for some people, but leave Hong Kong’s wildlife and scenery the poorer.
Every year, Hong Kong’s hillsides are afflicted by fires, especially in late autumn and winter.
Two maps highlighting the beauty of Lantau Island, and potential projects - along with links to more info, including on great places to visit.
Perhaps bridge proponents could explain just why Hong Kong should contribute to the project, and so help push our air pollution from very bad to even worse.
Introduction to written submission regarding the Hong Kong government's Concept Plan for Lantau.
Hong Kong’s Rockit Music Festival just on in Victoria Park, Causeway Bay. Though only a couple of international bands this year (one a rapper with band – Princess Superstar; the other UK rock group Feeder), still a fun weekend –…
Meeting re Lantau with Selina Chow - then Legislative Councillor for New Territories West (inc Lantau), Executive Councillor, Chairman of Hong Kong Tourism Board etc etc.
Perhaps one other alternative we haven't considered is actually banning marine users from the favoured feeding areas of Great White Sharks.
An alternative to the Concept Plan for Lantau - with proposed projects that may actually be sustainable.
Why does "sustainable development" now seem a readily bandied about, abused term - deployed for developments that have little regard for our environment, or for people today, or for future generations?
I've long felt that at least a handful of Hong Kong's better villages should be preserved; tourism seems a possible way of supporting this.
19 groups including Hong Kong Outdoors showed "a rare show of unity", to produce a Joint Statement on Sustainable Development for Lantau.
WWF Hong Kong is taking full page advertisements in Hong Kong’s newspapers, asking the Government and the AFCD to explain why they have failed to provide responsible stewardship of Hong Kong’s fish resources.
I believe Lantau should be protected as a green jewel in the Pearl River Delta; this will be in tandem with promises made by the Hong Kong government since the 1970s.
Here is the plan for ark-eden, an immensely different development scenario for Lantau Island to that envisaged in the Concept Plan for Lantau; the originators are Neil McLaughlin, Paul Melsom, and Jenny Quinton. Instead of lots of concrete, there’s an…
Comments on the Concept Plan for Lantau (or "Concrete Plan for Lantau"?), submitted to the Lantau Development Task Force.
The following is an email from Dr. Andy Cornish, which shows how you can support planned measures that could greatly help Hong Kong’s severely depleted fish stocks. In short (and 7 years after it was first recommended!) the Agriculture, Fisheries…
the government is planning a slew of new projects that will transform Lantau for ever. You can help make a difference – help Keep Lantau Beautiful! Lantau, surely Hong Kong’s loveliest island, is threatened by a slew of massive development…
The Concept Plan for Lantau has an extensive list of proposed projects that would transform Lantau.
Last decade, the future looked bright for the Deep Bay wetland, in northwest Hong Kong. The British and Chinese governments agreed to list it under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance – showing they recognised it should be…
My overriding impression is: THERE IS NO PLAN! Instead, a mishmash of various projects that are broadly based on the strategy to have development on north Lantau.
So far, Sun Hung Kai seems to have a really poor record of activities at Sham Chung. [No answers forthcoming to these questions.]
Right, let’s pretend I’m Steve Ballmer, barmy sales chief of Microsoft (Steve Who? … Steve Batty Ballmer goes iPod). Excuse me while I leap and dance around and whoop and scream for a few minutes. WOO! YEAH! WOOOO-OOOH! YEAH! YEEEEEEEE!…
With its traditional hamlets, old woods, setting in a basin ringed by hills within Sai Kung Country Park, Sham Chung should be one of the jewels in the crown of wild Hong Kong. Instead, it has suffered environmental vandalism. Though…
It's not new in Hong Kong that vehicles emit particulates, factories and power stations pump out noxious fumes. So what happens? Not much really; plenty of hand-wringing, sorry comments from officials that there isn't much we can do.
For the planned Zhuhai bridge, the governments involved should evaluate the environmental sustainability of accelerating development of the western Pearl River Delta (PRD) and only allow the bridge to go ahead when we have identified air pollution offsets elsewhere.
On behalf of the diving community I would like to express my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Miss. Tong, who tragically died in a diving related accident over the weekend. This is now the 4th fatality in…
Hong Kong’s Rockit Festival was held again in 2005, on 12th and 13 November 2005, with British band Feeder the only big name act, but worth the price of admission in themselves: see pages here on Rockit 2005. Here’s guff…
Good day to you. It gives me great pleasure to visit this site, to give a preliminary report on the work of the Lantau Concreting Committee [posted Sept 2004] – which, you must understand, is not connected with or to…
A super-prison in Hei Ling Chau is a bad idea because it makes no sense in land use planning. [Idea indeed shelved.]
No, a golf course should not be developed in Sham Chung.
Pedro Blanco finds itself at the centre of some of the most intense and destructive fishing pressure within the South China Sea.
Plans for the Hei Ling Chau superprison [by east Lantau] have been scrapped!
The conditions for developing eco-tourism in Hong Kong are poor: clumsy regulations, unimaginative Hong Kong image promotions and the obsession with mainland Chinese shoppers are key reasons I believe
