Villagers opposed to the government's draft outline zoning plan supposedly cut down valuable trees on their land. Photo: RTHK
Fung Hang and Kuk Po are just a few hundred metres away from Shenzhen, and villagers expect the value of their land to rise dramatically. Photo: RTHKEnvironmental groups and conservationists have sounded the alarm about trees being cut down in an ecologically sensitive area in the northeastern New Territories by local villagers upset with government plans to zone parts of the land for conservation.
The Town Planning Board published its draft outline zoning plan for Kuk Po, Fung Hang, and Yung Shue Au on February 19.
About 58 hectares of the 90 hectare area surrounded by the Plover Cove Country Park have been zoned as a “Green Belt” to provide a buffer between village development and the country park. Another 23 hectares have been zoned as a “Conservation Area” (CA) to protect the existing landscape and ecological features.
Green groups say they generally accept the plan, but local villagers are opposed to it. They say they want a greater proportion of the land to be set aside for village-type development and agriculture. They say this will ensure the rights of indigenous male villagers are respected, and encourage the rehabilitation of farmland.
Designing Hong Kong's CEO, Paul Zimmerman, says their opposition is more likely linked to a desire to build small houses.
“Under agricultural zoning, the approval rate for small house [development] is about 60 percent,” he said. “Green Belt, 30 percent. And under CA, almost no approval for small house [development].
“This is not the back of Hong Kong, this is the front of Shenzhen. The value of this land … will go up dramatically,” he added.
Villagers unhappy with the draft proposal have allegedly taken out their frustration on trees in the area. Some valuable trees along the shoreline and along village pathways have been cut down with chainsaws.
Dr Michael Lau, WWF-Hong Kong's assistant director of conservation, says it's a common tactic that people use to convince authorities that land isn't ecologically valuable.
“If a place has been destroyed or heavily degraded prior to the zoning plans, then this will be taken into consideration and it will be a lot harder to argue that they should be given a higher ecological zoning,” he said.
Kuk Po villager Mark Sung, who’s lived in the village for a decade, says he’s opposed to the destruction.
“It’s just heartbreaking, I don’t want to see any more,” he said. “But there’s no stopping them, they just want to keep cutting down trees and they think I’m the odd one out.”
The Agriculture, Fisheries, and Conservation Department acknowledges that tree felling happened on both government and private land, but says without witnesses, it can't investigate any further, and no action can be taken.
http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1255152-20160419.htm
