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April 14th, 2015:

Hong Kong pollution fight can be model for world, says environmentalist

Efforts in Hong Kong to reduce air and water pollution can serve as a model for the rest of the world, a leading environmentalist believes.

“Hong Kong is an extraordinarily important city for the world, for financial and intellectual reasons. If we can come up with solutions here, then that model can be exported to the other parts of the world,” said Peter Seligmann, founder and chief executive of Conservation International (CI). The charity, set up in 1987, opened an office in the city this week.

Seligmann, who is in Hong Kong for CI’s local launch, said the state of the environment in China was a concern for the world because of the number of people it affected – nearly a fifth of the world’s population – and China’s impact on global air and water quality.

Conservation International plans to conduct a case study in Hong Kong for its new Freshwater Health Index.

“It will work much like a Dow Jones index, tracking and recording the health of freshwater sources,” says Seligmann. “It will provide concrete metrics to governments so they can make smarter decisions.… It will show any depreciation in water quality so we can find the causes and take action to solve the problems.”

If you’re a government and the air quality is so bad that people can’t breathe or the water is tainted and undrinkable, it really is a concern for the stability of communities

Peter Seligmann

The format follows the group’s Ocean Health Index, an assessment tool that scientifically measures key elements of oceanic health around the world. Set up in 2012, the index has been embraced by governments including those of China, the United States, Brazil and Colombia.

Seligmann says environmental deterioration has become a matter of “life and death” for companies, governments and communities and is a reason why governments and organisations are much more receptive today.

“A food business that is selling poisoned food will go out of business. If a fisheries business can’t find fish, it goes under. If you’re a government and the air quality is so bad that people can’t breathe or the water is tainted and undrinkable, it really is a concern for the stability of communities.”

Jude Wu, Conservation International’s managing director for Hong Kong, said the charity sought to balance the demands of nature and development and ensure wise decisions are made today to secure a better future for the world.

“That future is attained by securing the parts of nature that Hong Kong depends on within and outside its borders,” Wu said. “Hong Kong is one of the mega urban centres of the world … but people often don’t think that Hong Kong is extremely dependent on nature. The city imports 80 per cent of its water and 90 per cent of its food.

“Our vision is to work with partners, businesses and governments to ensure the city’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have clean and abundant fresh water, clean and abundant food.”

Wu said education is key, with CI looking to boost green thinking among the city’s next generation of leaders. “We aim to work with schools and students in Hong Kong and show them how they can become change agents.”

It has teamed up with the Chinese International School to set up an Environmental Heroes Leadership Programme for the next generation of conservationists and has established a partnership with CSR Asia to advance Hong Kong’s leadership in corporate environmental sustainability.

“When living in a mega city it’s easy to forget that we are part of nature and not apart from nature.”

Conservation International is working in 30 countries around the world, including the Asia Pacific region.

In 2007 it established a fund in Sichuan province offering incentives to provide sustainable livelihoods and fresh water to villagers along the upper reaches of the Yangtze river. In 2014, it helped the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia pass legislation to create the Natural Park of the Coral Sea, the world’s largest protected area, covering 1.3 million square kilometres of ocean and remote islands. The park’s waters generate 2,500 to 3,000 tonnes of fish each year, providing food to 250,000 people, and help make the territory’s economy sustainable.

In Indonesia, manta rays, a major tourist draw, have been declining in number due to fishing. Manta rays are often killed for their gill plates, which are in high demand in China, where they are used in a health tonic in traditional Chinese medicine.

Conservation International and partners provided research showing that a single manta ray is worth about US$1 million in tourism revenue over the course of its lifetime, benefiting the community more than if caught and killed. This data helped persuade the Indonesian government to ban the fishing of manta rays in its waters – nearly six million square kilometres – which contain one of the world’s largest populations of the giant fish.

Source URL (modified on Apr 14th 2015, 7:07pm): http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/1766063/hong-kong-pollution-fight-can-be-model-world-says-environmentalist

Increased tourism benefits tygoons most and brings with it increased pollution levels

Clear the Air says:

increased tourism benefits tygoons most and brings with it increased pollution levels, residents’ increased  discomfort, stupid uncontrolled rentals and increased cost of living, shortage of daily necessities + profiteering + increased energy requirements adding to our already high pollution load.

Currently Hong Kong revealed it is asking PRC Govt to stem the flow of daily visitors from Shenzhen

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1765840/job-opportunities-open-hongkongers-new-visa-restrictions-look-set#comment-214511

This is expected to have little immediate effect and a decrease of 4.6m Shenzhen visitors after one year.

CTA says the Mainland Govt is at fault for failing to ensure the availability of genuine products in its shops and corrupt Customs officers allowing the products to enter PRC daily without duty or VAT payments –  They need a separate ‘Goods to Declare Red channel’ with appropriate search and duty payment delays to stem the flow of parallel trading mule ‘ants’.

The Individual Visit Scheme started at HKG’s request during the SARS epidemic in 2003, which caused a major tourism slump Leader Tung Kin Wah did not ask the Mainland that it should end after SARS disappeared

In 2002 HKG had 6.8m Mainland visitors

In 2003 HKG tourist total was 15.54m of which 8.5m were Mainlanders

In 2014 HKG had 60.84m tourists of which 47.25m were Mainlanders

By Comparison tourist arrivals here in 2014 : Ex Taiwan 2.03m, Ex USA 1.13m

Our current tiny infrastructure was not built to handle this continuing increase in visitor load whilst already being surrounded on 3 sides by highly polluting shipping and no Emissions Control Area in place, overbuilt high rises shoulder to shoulder creating urban canyons to trap airborne and roadside pollutants without any dispersing windflow, coal being used to generate power for CLP to sell 23% of its annual total generation basket back into PRD and old buses ending up shoulder to shoulder in congested areas instead of having electric hybrid shuttles on Nathan Rd, Causeway Bay, Central which should be designated ‘Clean Air Zones’!  Whatever happened to Ministerial Accountability ? well, the Buck is on the denial roundabout.

DoDo Govt Minister for Commerce and Economic Development Greg So predicted HKG visitors would eventually reach 100m within the decade

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1407779/visitor-numbers-can-rise-70m-three-years-commission-says?page=all

By comparison in the massive land mass area of the USA, they received 74.7m visitors in 2014

UK tourist in 2013 – 35 million  http://www.tourismalliance.com/downloads/TA_365_390.pdf

In summary:

Hong Kong landmass      426 square miles /1,104 km2                          2014 visitors        60.8m = 55,072 visitors per km2

USA  landmass                3.8 million square miles / 9,857,306 km²         2014 visitors        74.7m = 7.58 visitors per km2

UK landmass                   94,060 sq miles /243,610 km2                        2013 visitors        35m    = 144 visitors per km2

From 2003 SARS to 2014 Locust Xenophobia:

www.legco.gov.hk/research-publications/english/1314rb06-individual-visit-scheme-20140507-e.pdf

Timeline:

2002- 6.8m ex PRC visit HKG

2003- June SARS hits HKG- Tourism slump  leads to IVS implementation at HKG request-  Total visitors 15.54m / 8.5m  mainlanders

Individual visit scheme (IVS) starts for Beijing, Shanghai, Dongguan, Foshan, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Shenzhen, Zhongshan

IVS extended in 21 Guangdong cities, &  9  cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, & Fujian July 2004

667,000 IVS arrivals

2007-  IVS extended to 49 mainland cities

Tourism Board CEO ex PMI nicotine pusher Anthony Lau Chun-hon starts work

2009- Shenzhen introduces multiple-entry permit scheme for permanent residents

IVS 11m mainlanders of whom > 1.4m  use multiple-entry permits (MEPs)

2014- Of 60.84m visitors, 47,25m are ex PRC

30m mainlanders IVS, 14.9m use MEPs- Each averages 9.1 visits per year

Partnernet: Total  in 2014

Comparison tourist arrivals here

Ex Taiwan 2.03m

Ex USA 1.13m

http://partnernet.hktb.com/filemanager/intranet/ViS_Stat/ViS_Stat_E/ViS_E_2014/Tourism_Stat_12_2014_0.pdf

http://partnernet.hktb.com/en/research_statistics/latest_statistics/index.html

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