The conservationist opens up on the city’s mega development plans, Lantau Tomorrow and Northern Metropolis, and talks about how we can preserve Hong Kong’s precious wildlife
“Can you hear the birds flapping their wings?” Bosco Chan halts with the agility of a cat on the narrow, wobbly pontoon bridge in Mai Po’s restricted area and points towards a distant flock of birds, barely visible, gliding across the blue sky. After more than two decades of birdwatching, his eyes and ears are more attuned to the subtle sights and sounds of wildlife than the average Hongkonger.
As the new director of conservation at World Wide Fund for Nature-Hong Kong (WWF), Chan goes on weekly field trips to the heart of Hong Kong’s pristine wetlands to observe the conservation work being done by his teams. He believes getting out into nature is the best way to inform high-level decisions on wildlife conservation and public environmental policies.
These field trips are the tip of the iceberg that is his mammoth remit. Part of his role, which he began last October, involves closely monitoring the government’s Lantau Tomorrow initiative, an ambitious project to build a third business district on a manmade island in the waters surrounding Lantau Island over the next two decades; and also of the Northern Metropolis plan, announced in the 2021 policy address, which will turn around 300 sq km of the northern New Territories into a residential, technology and economic hub, creating housing and job opportunities for 2.5 million people. “If not done well, they will have an unprecedented impact on our natural environment outside the protected area of Hong Kong,” Chan says of the development projects.
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Among the most common victims of the projects are Chinese white dolphins, a species found in the Pearl River Estuary and the waters around Hong Kong. With an estimated population of only 2,500 in the Pearl River Estuary, which includes Hong Kong waters, they are categorised as “vulnerable” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. The waters in northern Lantau used to be these dolphins’ main breeding and feeding grounds. But recent reclamation and construction projects in the area, including the third runway at Chek Lap Kok airport and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, have forced them to relocate southwest of Lantau, where the narrow Lantau Channel’s heavy traffic and noise pollution have caused major disruption to their hunting and breeding, and where they are also frequently fatally injured by motor blades and hulls.
Chan is worried that the impact of reclamation for the Lantau Tomorrow project will further exacerbate the situation—and that not enough is being done to curb the damage. “Less than four per cent of the waters in Hong Kong are designated as marine protected areas or reserves,” he says. “Instead of piecemeal protection measures, the government should really look at marine spatial planning strategically by putting all marine uses, including protection, on the table. Then they should work on prioritisation and assessment to come up with a roadmap for the city on developing marine traffic, reclamation and protection.” At the time of writing, Chan and his team had met with the government to present these concerns.
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