If you’re fuming with the proposed development plans for Lantau Island, you’re not alone.
The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) published online a deeply concerned reaction to the Hong Kong government’s planned development of Lantau Island, which many critics have denounced as extremely harmful to its natural environment and the way of life of its inhabitants.
In an early May post, WWF states that “The development-oriented plan goes against its principle and vision to ‘[balance] and [enhance] development and conservation’, fails to protect the island’s indisputably rich biodiversity and acknowledge the loopholes in existing legislation that rendered the island vulnerable to environmental degradation.”
The international organisation put together a detailed list of measures it requests the government to abide by, with regard to attaining sustainable development and conserving Lantau’s biodiversity.
These include conducting a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for all planned projects, and reviewing all development proposals under “Hong Kong 2030+”.
WWF also strongly suggests maintaining the traffic restriction of closed roads, actively managing and protecting all ecologically important sites on Lantau and their vicinities, designating certain offshore waters as protected marine parks, and revoking the plans for the proposed East Lantau Metropolis.
A letter was sent by WWF to the Lantau Development Advisory Committee on April 29, with a more extensive detaling of its comments and suggestions.
Photo by Chensiyuan (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
