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SECTION
8 Summary : THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF HONG KONG'S Environmental
Baseline
| 8.2 |
Pressures
and Constraints |
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| 8.2.1.13 |
Hong Kong requires a more effective strategy for ecological protection (for both habitats and species) and their management for biodiversity in a way which adapts and adjusts policies based on new information and monitoring. The Convention on Biological Diversity which was signed by both Britain and China in 1992 requires signatory countries to develop strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Since there is currently very little strategic planning and management of ecological and natural resources in Hong Kong, there is an opportunity for a single comprehensive strategy to be developed, implemented and monitored to address these deficiencies. |
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| 8.2.1.14 |
The international and regional significance of impacts and issues affecting biodiversity in Hong Kong point to a need for greater cross-boundary collaboration and collective action to address the impacts which development of land and associated pollutant emissions are having on areas such as the marine and wetland habitats of Deep Bay. The increasing trend towards regionalisation in the Pearl River Delta suggests that many of the present problems and trends in development patterns, resource exploitation and pollution can only be comprehensively addressed through a concerted region-wide approach. Such an approach will require greater collaboration with Guangdong authorities (for example in helping to comply with the terms of the Ramsar Convention under which the Mai Po Ramsar Site is designated) together with a more far-sighted and holistic approach to environmental planning and management as suggested by the Chief Executive's 1999 Policy Address. The problem will require a much higher degree of collaboration than is currently practised, as well as greater transparency such that dialogue is conducted between equal partners. |
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| Assimilative Capacity |
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| 8.2.1.15 |
There are significant constraints on the ability of Hong Kong's resources of air, coastal marine waters and freshwaters to continue assimilating the level of pollutants which are currently being discharged to the environment. The assimilative capacity of these media, in particular marine water quality and air quality in a number of locations in Hong Kong may well have been reached and exceeded (at least in terms of environmental quality with respect to recognised benchmarks such as quality objectives, since the current assimilative capacities of these media have not been estimated). |
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