HK Electric has just launched a new campaign, based on the former Green Lamma Green campaign: Green Hong Kong Green:

Lamma-zine: Sep 7: 'Green Lamma Green' Goes HK-Wide

They're "Hunting for Eco-Heritage Hotspots on HK Island".

So this leaves us with one important question:
What and where are the "Eco-Heritage Hotspots" of Lamma?

Any suggestions?

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1) Sham Wan: still sometimes a hatching site for green turtles.
At risk from our own "Disco Bay" developer.

2) Yung Shue Long: home of the extremely rare Romer's Tree Frog.
At risk from the Drainage Department's concrete and developer's dumping construction waste.

3) Banyan tree, next to police box.
Safely enclosed in strong steel fence to prevent it wandering away.

But looking the the HEC release, they mention "To allow a better understanding of eco-heritage hotspots, eco-tours were organised for about 100 local citizens to tour around Stanley after the ceremony, visiting Blake Pier, Murray House, old Stanley Police Station, Tin Hau Temple, Indian Rubber Trees and Chinese Banyan, etc."
I don't really see the "eco" aspect of things like piers, temples, police stations. None of them seem like parts of the native ecology, except the banyan.

They probably used a hyphen instead of 'and'.

'Eco-heritage' doesn't mean anything... as to 'hotspots', Hong Kong is one big hotspot for at least 6 months a year. As we all know, precision and logic are thin on the ground.

"Eco" has just become another buzz word for local companies wanting to push their environmental friendly credentials without actually doing anything. My guess is the tour was a bunch of shareholders who were more interested in the free lunch at the end and couldn't tell the difference between Eco and heritage - but Hong Kong Electric comes up smelling of roses. It happened with the 1999/2000 dotcom boom when several companies a week were popping up or changing their names to include dotcom, e-something etc (who can forget the iMail?). Expect a lot more of this window dressing from local companies without them actually doing anything to support it. A concrete manufacturer would still make concrete even it changed its name to Eco-build and gave a guided tour of heritage sites under the guise of "Green Tours". Businesses here seem to think Hong Kong people (caucasian/chinese) are stupid. Then maybe they are, or they just don't care - discuss.

From the "Green Hong Kong Green" link.

“My Favourite Eco-Heritage Hotspots on Hong Kong Island” competition was also rolled out today, inviting local citizens to nominate valuable ecological or heritage sites inside three designated country parks on Hong Kong Island. Winning entries will be considered for inclusion in the new eco-heritage routes."

This quote from their web-site would indicate that the HK Govt. has given them permission, in advance, to build new trails through three Country Parks on HK island. I wonder if this would not be contravening HK's Country Parks Ordinance?

I think (and hope) they mean by "making trails" to designate routes and perhaps put up signboards on existing tracks, not actually creating new pathways.

See the Central and Western Districts Heritage Trail for example.

Anyway, you'd expect anything of significance in a park to have some kind of trail already going to it.

I think that this e-co routes will be very similar to the 3 Green Lamma Green eco-routes they set up 1-2 years ago, after which the the Green Hong Kong Green campain is modeled. You've seen the signs along the Family Trail (route 1) Cable Route 1 (route 2) and in Pak Kok (route 3).

They'll probably only put up some signs describing that particular "eco-hotspot", make another eco-routes map, train some "eco-leaders" amongst their volunteers and organise occasional tours walking along these routes, same as on Lamma. Harmless, educational fun and actually good, positive PR, I think.

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I nominate Nick the Bookman (provided a law can be passed chaining him to his corner).

He wins on both counts:

heritage - provides a perfect photo-op for clapped out British journalists looking for a story on Lamma, the Hippie Land that Time Forgot;

eco - that fine beard provides an important habitat for several critically endangered species of arthropod.

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My eyes are up here

Alan wrote: 'I think (and hope) they mean by "making trails" to designate routes and perhaps put up signboards on existing tracks, not actually creating new pathways."

Again, from the GHKG link:

"All sites nominated must fall within or close to the Lung Fu Shan Country Park, Aberdeen Country Park or Tai Tam Country Park, but those already listed on the educational panels of the nature trails will not be accepted."

How much clearer could the wording be? The Central and Western districts,are not forested nor do they have streams meandering about, well not the last time I visited anyway!


LG wrote: They'll probably only put up some signs describing that particular "eco-hotspot", make another eco-routes map, train some "eco-leaders" amongst their volunteers and organise occasional tours walking along these routes, same as on Lamma. Harmless, educational fun and actually good, positive PR, I think.

LG, It can't be easy being objective when HK Electric pay you money every month as one of the sponsors of this website. Hope you've increased the rates, inflation 'n all...

This is not some harmless PR exercise. The public are being asked to help "explore" HK' Country Parks with the express aim of designating and building new trails through them. Ask yourselves this... when was the last time any developer in HK did anything that did not involve tons of cement?

A "nature trail" is a designation. It's just putting up signs, not pouring concrete.

It's possible they might then want to "improve" these paths, but I hope that by now anyone who is calling themself "eco-"anything would realise how stupid and unpopular that would be.

Perhaps you should ask them directly to clarify, we can only speculate after all.

HK Electric is our main advertiser and without them this site could not be self-supporting as it is now. I don't claim to be objective towards my advertisers, they pay for most of this website, after all, and are crucial for its survival.

I admit to having a generally positive view towards my advertisers as I know quite a bit about their businesses and how hard they work trying to do their very best. Most of them are also personal friends and I'm frankly quite eager to promote their businesses. I'm entitled to voice my own biased opinions in this forum, like everybody else.

But this forum is independent and not advertising-supported, paid for only by a few anonymous, private sponsors, even hosted on a different webhost in a different country than the "commercial" rest of Lamma.com.hk.

So you can voice your opinions about any business here freely, good or bad, including any advertiser. This has been our policy for many years now and it's worked OK so far, despite a few advertisers and other local businesses occasionally being unhappy about "negative comments" here, even threatening law suits a few times over the years. But I've always defended our policy, explained it to them in person and it's always been settled amiably in the end.


This IS a harmless PR exercise, the main goal is raising eco-awareness and no physical trails will be built. HK Electric is not a developer interested in pouring any concrete outside their own business area. Why'd they pay for building a public trail, which would be much more expensive than a few publicity events/press releases, achieving less in "goodwill" terms, potentially even damaging to the main purpose of this publicity campaign which is portraying HK Electric as a "green" company.

This campaign is directly and closely based on the 3-year Green Lamma Green campaign, so we have a good idea of what (and what not) to expect. A few signboards, some tree planting and public cleanup Events will most likely be the extent of the physical aspects of the campaign.

The motives behind the campaign are very transparent and obvious, benign and honest, I think:
Raise public eco-awareness, do a few "good deeds" and make HK Electric look good to the public while doing so. Classic, corporate PR, a win-win situation for both sides, nothing really wrong with that, IMHO.

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The attitude which I hold regarding development in HK (or anywhere on the planet),is a sceptical one...to assume the worst and hope that I am wrong. Better that than the opposite, methinks.

Here in HK, there are government bodies, laws, regulations, punitive measures(fines and custodial sentences), which are suppossed to act as deterrents to environmental destruction. However, the system is far from foolproof. Sometimes the government's own measures to "enhance' the environment are themselves highly destructive, never mind property developers'! Too often, they (gov. bureaucrats) just " pass the buck", resulting in cases such as the one in Yun Shue Long valley. A crime if ever there were.

I am very wary of power generating companies here. The Lantau greenies had to fight a long and protracted campaign to prevent CLP from building an LNG staiton on one of the Soko island's. It was a very close run thing.

Once a pristine, natural sight is developed, it is gone forever. Hunter's beach in Yung Shue wan comes to mind. Wanton environmental destruction is an unconscious mental impetus amongst Chinese.

The "Green Lamma Green" / "Green Hong Kong Green" campaign by The Conservancy Association and HK Electric is organising an Eco-Tour Festival in the Aberdeen Country Park on Sat, Feb 23.

They'll be promoting their 8 eco-tours, expanding their currently long-running Lamma-based eco-tours to 5, including a new night safari in Sok Kwu Wan.
Here's a Chin. description of the 5 Lamma-based eco-tours.

http://www.cahk.org.hk/ghkg/lamma.htm
http://www.cahk.org.hk/ghkg/eco-tour.htm

There are 150 (?) unpaid volunteer eco-tour guides trained so far, but not a single English tour guide yet. I volunteered to the Conservancy Association at their last Green Lamma Green tree caring event, but no more feedback from them so far. So all their info is all in Cantonese only.
Some more bilingual details coming soon in their press releases next week, hopefully...

Anybody wants to come along to this probably all-Cantonese event? Call me at 6151 5408 (my new phone number is also at the top of the home page).
I'll be on the noon ferry to Aberdeen, probably, walking up from the ferry pier.
I'll go if I won't be guiding a group of students into the ex-Lamma Quarry today (tbc). They're doing a study project, including a Social Impact Study. Another Lamma-zine story is in preparation...

詳情可瀏覽：http://www.cahk.org.hk/ghkg/recruitment.htm

Facebook 專頁: http://www.facebook.com/greenhkgreen

查詢： 2728 6781(長春社)

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