Executive Summary of Environmental Baseline Report

The area of cultivated land in Hong Kong has declined by more than 50% between 1954 and 1996. Of the remaining 2,900 hectares in production, nearly half is used for freshwater pond culture and one third for market gardening. Agricultural resources are under greatest pressure from the development of land which may have been exacerbated by a reduced need to raise produce locally as import distribution channels have improved.

Local marine fisheries are also in decline: catches landed in Hong Kong have declined from a peak of just over 90,000 tonnes in 1976 to just over 50,000 tonnes in 1996. Species composition data for marine fish stocks show an apparent trend of declining numbers of commercially valuable demersal inshore fish species. The key pressures on this resource are intensive fishing pressure combined with rapid infrastructure development and increased marine pollution arising largely from population growth in the SAR.

Hong Kong is dependent upon imports of agricultural products and fish. For example the SAR provides only 14% of its fresh vegetable requirement locally and 61% of the marine fish consumption demand. Pond culture utilises 1,475 ha of fish ponds which yielded around 5,000 tonnes of freshwater fish in 1997, or 12% of Hong Kong's consumption that year. Mariculture occupies 209 hectares of sea area which yielded nearly 3,000 tonnes of live marine fish in 1997. The SAR's large demand for live marine fish is also thought to be perpetuating the use of destructive fishing techniques in countries which catch and supply these fish.