Executive Summary of Environmental Baseline Report

The heritage baseline resource has been defined for the study as comprising 67 Declared Monuments, 8 Deemed Monuments, 443 graded historic buildings and structures and a further 184 Sites of Specific Archaeological Interest (SSAI). Only Declared and Deemed Monuments however are afforded legal protection from damage or destruction. Knowledge of the historical resource has been augmented by a recently completed territory wide archaeological survey, and research shows that evidence of human settlement in Hong Kong dates as far back as the Neolithic period - up to 4000 BC. Artefacts and remains from this period to the 20th Century have been discovered, and indicate the existence of both coastal and inland settlement.

Despite the massive scale of development in Hong Kong there are also many examples of traditional Chinese architecture including temples, villages and ancestral halls together with significant evidence of military structures in parts of the territory. Although the heritage resource has the potential to increase as additional sites are discovered, it is also under significant threat from new development, particularly in urban areas where older buildings with no statutory protection have traditionally been demolished to make way for new schemes rather than being incorporated into urban redevelopment programmes. In addition, the areas of highest potential for heritage resources are often in coastal regions where the pressure for new development is greatest and where significant reclamation has already been carried out. Rural areas too are under increasing threat from encroachment of developments, particularly in growth areas such as the new towns and where the lack of development controls on private land is threatening many traditional village buildings and other cultural features in the New Territories.