1
Fourth Meeting of the
Awareness, Mainstreaming and Sustainability Working Group
Confirmed Minutes of Meeting
Date : 24 January 2014 (Friday)
Time : 2:36 – 5:02p.m.
Venue : Room 701, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, 7/F,
Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices, 303 Cheung Sha Wan Road,
Kowloon
Attendance
Convenor
Dr WONG Fook-yee
Members
Mr CHEUNG Chi-wah
Mr JOR Chi-keung, George
Mr Samuel KWONG
Dr LAU Chee-sing
Dr LAU Wai-neng, Michael
Ms LAU Yuen-yee, Vicky
Dr LEE Wai-ying, Joanna
Dr NG Cho-nam, B.B.S., J.P.
Mr SO Kwok-yin, Ken
Mr TAM Man-kei
Mr TAM Po-yiu
Ms WONG Lai-yin, Idy
Ms YIP Yan-yan
2
Mr CHAN Yiu-keung
Assistant Director (Conservation),
Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation
Department (AFCD)
Mr WONG Yung-hing, Eric Executive Director (Hong Kong
Wetland Park), AFCD
Dr PAU Ka-wai
Senior Agricultural Development
Officer, AFCD
Secretary
Dr MOK Siu-yan, Flora Conservation Officer (Biodiversity) 5,
AFCD
In Attendance
Prof. LAM Kin-che, S.B.S., J.P. Chairman, BSAP Steering Committee
Ms LOH Kung-wai, Christine, J.P.
Under Secretary for the Environment,
Environment Bureau
Mr CHAN Kin-fung, Simon
Senior Conservation Officer
(Biodiversity), AFCD
Mr CHAN Ho-pang, Felix
Conservation Officer (Special Duty)2
Ms TONG Yee-fun, Pauline
Country Parks Ranger Services Officer
(East)
Absent with Apologies
3
Mr LAI Chuen-chi, Patrick
Senior Country Parks Officer / Ranger
Services, AFCD
Mr Ruy BARRETTO
Mr CHING See-ho, Ken
Ms Suzanne GENDRON
Ms Sophie LE CLUE
Mr LI Kwok-ying, B.B.S., M.H., J.P.
Mr PANG Siu-kei
Ms YAU Lai-ping, Pansy
Mr Paul ZIMMERMAN
Welcoming Message
The meeting was commenced at 14:36pm. The Convenor welcomed the Chairman and the
Vice Chair of the Steering Committee and other members who attended this meeting for the
first time.
Agenda Items
Action
I. Confirmation of Minutes of the 3rd Meeting held on 7 November
2013
2. The Convenor said that the draft minutes had been circulated to
members on 20 December 2013. After incorporating the minor
comments received, the revised draft was circulated again on 8 January
2014. As no further comment was received, the minutes of the 3rd
meeting were confirmed.
(Post-meeting note: the confirmed minutes of the 3rd meeting had been
circulated to members for record on 29 January 2014.)
II. Matters Arising
4
Action
3. The Secretary, Dr Flora MOK, briefed members on the overall
progress of BSAP development, matters arising, the multimedia library
on the BSAP webpage and the file sharing website to be launched.
4. Mr Ken SO enquired the number of attendees in the first public
lecture held on 18 January 2014. Dr Flora MOK replied that the first
lecture was a full house with 280 attendees. Mr Simon CHAN
supplemented that he would brief members about the feedback
received under AOB.
III. Progress Report by the Focus Group on NGOs
5. Ms YIP Yan-yan, leader of the Focus Group for NGOs, provided an
overview of the existing approaches adopted by environmental NGOs on
awareness-raising, and took members through the gaps identified. She
also introduced the next steps of the Focus Group.
6. The Convenor thanked this Focus Group for making progress, and
suggested the Secretariat to upload the Inception Report to the File
Sharing Website.
(Post-meeting note: the Inception Report of the Focus Group on NGOs
was uploaded to the File Sharing Website on 30 January 2014.)
The Secretariat
7. Prof. LAM Kin-che shared his observation that while some citizens
were passionate about conservation, many others were not familiar with
this topic. He asked what the NGOs could focus on in their work, where
limited resources should be placed, and what platforms would be most
appropriate to carry out the work. In response, Ms YIP Yan-yan said
that while NGOs were mainly supporting the conservation work in the
society, the Government could provide more resources to support them
to explore new initiatives. In particular, NGOs that had not been
focusing on biodiversity conservation would need extra funds to take up
the new job on promoting BSAP. The NGOs also wished to have a
common platform to share information and to better coordinate work
5
among themselves.
Action
8. Ms Idy WONG asked how mainstreaming of BSAP among NGOs,
especially non-environmental NGOs which are the majority, could be
done. Ms YIP Yan-yan replied that messages about BSAP could be
radiated through various organisations, in which the receiving
organisation would further spread the message to its connections. She
reiterated that a common file sharing platform would aid the flow of
ideas between Working Groups and Focus Groups and could minimise
overlapping of efforts.
9. Dr NG Cho-nam supported the suggestion that NGOs could take up
the promotion of BSAP through their networks. He shared a successful
case of promotion through the Hong Kong Scout Association (HKSA).
He pointed out that this organisation was experienced in campaign
management and they had a huge network of members. He suggested
environmental NGOs to partner with groups similar to the HKSA to
maximise their outreach in promoting BSAP. Mr Ken SO suggested that
the Hong Kong Council for Social Service (HKCSS) could also be
approached. The HKCSS was set up to train social workers or NGOs
with different skill sets, and would welcome collaborations to deliver
conservation-relevant trainings to social workers. Collaborating with
HKCSS could also serve as a springboard to mainstream biodiversity into
the social service sector.
10. Mr Simon CHAN supplemented that the Environmental and
Conservation Fund had been an existing funding source for projects
relevant to conservation. He added that if Focus Groups wish to meet
with Government Departments to discuss about BSAP, the Secretariat
could serve as a contact point and could help provide a venue for
meeting.
11. Ms Christine LOH remarked that the focuses in different stages of
BSAP formulation and implementation should be different. At this
stage, efforts should be focused how to outreach to more people and get
feedbacks; another stage would be the plan-making stage, during which
6
the Working Groups would have debated and recommended to the
Steering Committee proposals to engage the public in the conservation
of biodiversity in the long run. As these proposals remained
plans-in-the-making, Working Groups should focus on finding out how to
reach out to the public to promote the coming of BSAP. The Convenor
said that awareness-raising remained one of the main focuses of this
Working Group, and the Working Group would also need to prioritise its
work in view of the limited time and resources.
Action
12. Mr TAM Po-yiu suggested public organisations might have a role to
play in promoting BSAP given their connections with the Government,
and their involvement in many aspects of the economy. It might be
beneficial to secure their buy-in. Dr NG Cho-nam shared an
observation that having the common birds of Hong Kong printed on
stamps could enhance public appreciation of the local biodiversity. He
suggested that organisations similar to the Hongkong Post could be
approached for promoting BSAP.
13. Mr CHEUNG Chi-wah asked whether Focus Groups should further
integrate their promotion efforts to ensure good coverage of all target
receivers. The Convenor commented that such integration could be
explored at the next stage.
14. Dr NG Cho-nam shared another case of collaboration between the
HKSA and the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society to survey for biodiversity
around their campsite in Sai Kung, and the survey data was used for
biodiversity education for visitors. He suggested that similar
collaborations could be explored to leverage the expertise of
environmental NGOs and the resources of youth organisations. Ms
Christine LOH concurred that similar partnerships should be encouraged,
and proposed that the Government could work with other groups to host
events. This could be an indirect way of reaching out to a potentially
larger number of participants through youth organisations other than
directly giving lectures to the public.
15. Mr TAM Po-yiu remarked that the Government could directly or
7
indirectly support conservation projects, as long as there were clear
criteria of selection, and the partnering organisations were trusted
and/or experienced in relevant arenas. He opined that these
partnerships could promote BSAP at the formulation stage, and they
could serve as models for future collaborations at the implementation
stage. Ms Idy WONG concurred that such partnerships should be
further explored and they should start early. Partnering with
non-environmental NGOs could help reaching out to those who might be
relatively unfamiliar with biodiversity conservation, which was the group
to be targeted at for successful mainstreaming of biodiversity
conservation in the society. Mr CHEUNG Chi-wah pointed out that it
would be essential to introduce BSAP to citizens who were normally out
of reach by the environmental NGOs, so as to better prepare them for
the public consultation of BSAP, and the out-reaching work should start
as early as possible.
Action
16. Mr George JOR added that there were over 1000 schools in Hong
Kong and many would welcome biodiversity experts and environmental
NGOs to give lectures to their students. Dr Joanna LEE supplemented
that similar collaborations could also be established with the business
sector, which was an important stakeholder to the BSAP process and
they might be more flexible in securing resources.
17. In summary, the Convenor said the suggested form of collaboration
between environmental NGOs, the Government, and other non-
environmental organisations could possibly overcome problems like
resource limitation and limited stakeholder involvement; it could be
explored as a recommendation of the Working Group.
IV. Progress Report by the Sustainable Use, Ecological Footprint and
Ecosystem Services Focus Group
20. The leader of the Sustainable Use, Ecological Footprint and
Ecosystem Services Focus Group, Mr CHEUNG Chi-wah, gave members
an overview of the three work streams of the Focus Group, their
8
compositions, progresses and next steps.
Action
21. Dr NG Cho-nam suggested that ecosystem services should be
examined under a local context to avoid underestimation of species /
habitat values. Some species or habitats might have a higher value
than usual in a city due to cultural or other factors. He also suggested
the focus group to clarify the objective of examining the ecological
footprint of Hong Kong, whether it was to reduce the footprint, or to
enhance conservation of biodiversity, and whether assumptions and
conversion factors involved in the calculation should be treated
differently taking into account the local context. He cautioned that the
assumptions listed by the organisation developing the Footprint
calculation might not be readily applicable to Hong Kong.
22. Prof. LAM Kin-che noticed that the work on ecological footprint
would put Hong Kong under a global context and would help remind it of
its responsibility; the work on sustainable use and ecosystem services
would help people to connect to biodiversity and understand how they
would be impacted by biodiversity and vice versa. He thought that the
work on valuation of ecosystem services might help emphasise the
significance of biodiversity which in turn would help solicit public
support towards conserving biodiversity.
23. The Convenor thanked this focus group once again for looking into a
challenging topic, and invited members to provide suggestions to the
focus group.
V. Progress Report by the Focus Group on Business Sector
24. Mr Samuel KWONG reported that the Business Focus Group had
convened an inception meeting in November last year, in which
9
representatives from various chambers, including the Hong Kong General
Chamber of Commerce, the British Chamber of Commerce, the Australia
Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce;
representatives from the Business Environment Council and individual
companies. Environmental NGOs including WWF Hong Kong and Civic
Exchange had also participated. The Focus Group had explored the
relevance between biodiversity and business and recognised that the
latter had been benefiting from biodiversity in various ways including
creation of job opportunities. To proceed, the focus group would aim
at engaging the business sector by bringing the message of biodiversity
conservation and BSAP into the sector, and to gather the existing good
works for sharing with more people. The Business Focus Group would
be organising a discussion forum 13 February to help facilitate exchange
of ideas between environmental NGOs and the business community.
Speakers invited including representatives from the financial sector
sharing how biodiversity could tie with business operation, and from
HKIEIA who will explain the EIA process to the audience. In the future,
the Focus Group would aim at encouraging other professional
organisations (e.g. HKIE) to join or organise similar workshops for their
members.
Action
25. Mr Ken SO noticed that large corporates would be willing to
consider biodiversity conservation in their business models in order to
improve their sustainability reporting, which in turn would affect
investment decisions. He pointed out that this behaviour would worth
further exploration.
26. The Convenor asked whether green groups would be invited to
share their views in the Business Discussion Forum. Mr Samuel
KWONG replied that NGOs were invited to the forum. He also said the
flyers for the forum would be prepared soon and invited members to
help distribute them to industries via their connections.
10
Action
VI. Progress of the Public Awareness and Engagement Programme
27. Mr Felix CHAN presented to members the progress of various
awareness-raising activities for BSAP. He also informed members about
the up-coming Public Forums and encouraged Focus Groups to
participate.
28. Mr Simon CHAN briefed members about the general responses
received in the first public lecture held on 18 January 2014. A total of
280 persons attended the lecture and 26 written responses were
received. A majority considered that more awareness-raising would be
needed to introduce BSAP and they should target students at school.
Many reflected that the Government should conserve the local
biodiversity by working together with different sectors of the society.
Some specifically named the species or areas requiring greater
conservation efforts, including the Chinese White Dolphins. Some said
that other social and economic concerns of the society, including
development and population policy, should also be considered under
BSAP. The Secretariat would continue to collect and compile comments
and suggestions in future public awareness activities as appropriate.
Prof. LAM Kin-che concurred with the comment on targeting the
promotion of BSAP to students, because materials designed for students
could be duplicated among the schools and the promotion would be
efficient. He added that the Committee could consider recommending
to the Government to provide resources to schools to promote
biodiversity.
29. Mr Ken SO said that it would be worthy to know the number of
attendees who were not related to BSAP Committee members or active
participants of conservation activities. He pointed out that this would
11
be the target group to reach out to, and the promotion for public
lectures should be tailored accordingly. Mr Simon CHAN replied that
about half of the audience generally belonged to this group. As this
lecture was jointly organised by ENB, EPD, AFCD and the Hong Kong
Science Museum, promotion via the Hong Kong Science Museum could
reach out to families looking for leisure activities or general science
education activities.
Action
30. Prof. LAM Kin-che was encouraged that first lecture was delivered
to a full house. Given that seats were limited, he suggested indicating
in the reply to those who could not attend that the lecture will be
recorded and posted online so that interested parties could view later.
He also asked whether the venue could absorb slight overbooking. Mr
Eric WONG replied that the first lecture was overbooked but some
registrants did not show up. There were 150 seats outside the hall with
a television showing the real-time recording of the lecture and therefore
slight overshoot of registrants could be absorbed. He added that AFCD
would roll out the promotion for the next lecture earlier to better
forecast the booking trend.
31. Dr Joanna LEE suggested that school teachers should also be
targeted to strengthen biodiversity education. Training teachers could
efficiently promote BSAP because training one would help deliver the
message to many students; given that handy teaching materials were
readily available, teachers could fit relevant information into the existing
curriculum, and it would be easier to train a teacher than to initiate a
change of curriculum to include more biodiversity topics. She
supplemented that some NGOs were already compiling relevant teaching
materials for schools, and teacher trainings could be included in the
teacher-training programme run by the Education Bureau.
12
32. Dr NG Cho-nam commented on the message to deliver when
promoting biodiversity. He suggested that the public might be able to
better comprehend the hard facts of biodiversity if they were compared
with that of the nearby regions (e.g. to compare the number of bird
species in Hong Kong verses that in Shenzhen). Such comparisons
might help highlight the value and the uniqueness of the biodiversity in
Hong Kong, and might trigger the sense of stewardship amongst the
audience. He also suggested creating slogans to emphasise the
uniqueness of Hong Kong’s biodiversity. Ms Christine LOH said that
insights from highly knowledgeable experts in Hong Kong could be put
into context and recorded in short clips for distribution. Prof. LAM
Kin-che concurred and suggested these short clips could be uploaded
onto TED.com to cater an international audience.
Action
33. Dr Michael LAU suggested combing introducing local biodiversity
with public engagement, for example, to host competitions asking
participants to identify another city of similar size as Hong Kong and with
a richer biodiversity. He also advised that feedbacks should be
collected from all public lectures or seminars to be co-organised with
NGOs or other organisations, and should be analysed to extract useful
comments for incorporation into the BSAP.
VII. Any Other Business
34. The Convenor reported that Ms Sophie LE CLUE had sent a question
to the Secretariat about the progress of mainstreaming biodiversity
within the Government. Ms Christine LOH acknowledged that
mainstreaming the message within the Government would be essential
for formulating BSAP. An early task was to introduce BSAP widely. One of
the approaches to do so was to make multiple use of the existing good
work of the Government. Stories from Government departments that
already had work that took nature conservation into account could be
13
gathered and showcased for promoting biodiversity conservation under
BSAP. This was done in the first public lecture, in which heads of the
Planning Department, Drainage Services Department and the Efficiency
Unit gathered and exchanged their views and expectations about BSAP.
She also suggested exploring whether the unions within ENB, EPD and
AFCD could be approached for collaborations to spread the BSAP
message. She also reported that there are available channels to inform
directorate level officials from relevant departments about BSAP.
Another way to spread the BSAP message in the future was via electronic
means, including mobile phone applications could also be generated
although there was cost involved. The Efficiency Unit’s youth portal or
the webpage could be a possible dissemination channel as well.
Action
35. Mr CHEUNG Chi-wah asked how the consultation and the approval
of BSAP would be done. He understood that green groups were
concerned about how the input from various organisations would be
incorporated into the BSAP. Mr CHAN Yiu-keung explained that the
engagement process of BSAP had been on-going. At the early stage,
the BSAP Committee was formed to engage stakeholders, interested
parties and experts into the discussion process. Recommendations
from the Focus Groups and Working Groups will be prioritised before
submitting to the Steering Committee, which would further discuss and
prioritise actions to be implemented. A public consultation would be
conducted towards the end of the discussion process so that the public
could provide comments on a more holistic draft of BSAP. Opinions
gathered at the consultation would be submitted to the Steering
Committee for finalising the draft. As for the actual implementation of
different actions under the BSAP, it would need further arrangement of
work and resources.
36. Ms Christine LOH supplemented how the draft of BSAP would be
14
cleared within the Government before publishing. She pointed out that
the Steering Committee, including representatives from various
Government departments therein, would look into the
recommendations submitted and prioritise them, and eventually agree
on a draft BSAP to be submitted to the Government, and the
Government would take a final view on the draft BSAP. Then the
Steering Committee would launch a public consultation. The
Government will review the draft based on the latest situation and
comments received in the consultation, and will submit the finalised
BSAP to senior officials for approval. Mr Chan Yiu-keung added that the
public consultation would be conducted at the end of 2014 or early 2015
when the Government had a view on the draft BSAP. If there were
recommendations falling outside the ambit of the departments
represented in the Steering Committee, responses could be sought via
circulation or other methods as appropriate.
Action
37. Mr TAM Po-yiu supported conducting more engagement and
consensus-building activities before proceeding to public consultation, so
that the public could be prepared and would give informed comments
during the consultation. He envisaged that while the Steering
Committee could provide a lot of support in terms of the technical
aspect of the action plans, the Government, upon receiving the
recommendations, would review them from a strategic perspective and
determine resource implications or other impacts that would be brought
up by the BSAP.
38. Mr CHEUNG Chi-wah noticed that Focus Groups might not be able
to look into all priority issues. He asked how the remaining priorities
would be dealt with. Prof. LAM Kin-che believed that a clearer picture
would appear when all Focus Groups and Working Groups submitted
their recommendations to the Steering Committee. The Steering
15
Committee could then determine an appropriate way to study the
outstanding issues. Mr Simon CHAN supplemented that other than the
Focus Groups, the Working Groups would also look into some of the
priorities and propose actions, and the Government would have relevant
recommendations to be submitted to the Steering Committee. The
Secretariat would help compile all recommendations into a draft BSAP.
He highlighted that time is very limited for compiling a draft BSAP by the
end of 2014, and therefore, Focus Groups were advised to provide their
recommendations by mid-2014.
Action
39. Mr TAM Po-yiu shared with members that one of the Focus Groups
had been discussing about adopting strategic environmental assessment
in Hong Kong which involves amending existing legislation and
revamping mechanisms. He pointed out that as the negotiation process
for changing existing mechanisms would likely be time-consuming, the
Environment Bureau would need to communicate with relevant
departments at an early stage to pave the way for future collaborations
under BSAP.
40. Mr CHAN Yiu-keung informed members that AFCD had prepared a
draft of the first part of BSAP with background information and an
overview of the existing biodiversity in Hong Kong, based on what was
known to AFCD. He pointed out that as any proposed change to the
existing mechanism would require continuous negotiation between
multiple parties, such process would take more time than compiling a
BSAP. With a view to progress the work of nature conservation in Hong
Kong, the BSAP Committee could consider recommending feasible action
plans for the draft BSAP while exploring how to deal with the
‘controversies’. He noticed that the strategies and actions in the other
BSAPs were presented in a concise manner, and suggested that the BSAP
of Hong Kong could adopt a similar style for easy comprehension by an
16
international audience.
Action
41. Ms Christine LOH concurred that the Steering Committee would
need to discuss how to deal with potentially difficult issues. For example,
while a large part of the BSAP framework would be quite technical, such
as stock-taking of biodiversity, conflict could arise over issues such as
what to include and their prioritisation. She expressed concerns about
getting bogged down by ‘controversies’ thereby preventing the Steering
Committee from proceeding with its work. She was also concerned that
the BSAP process would become a battleground for different groups to
change existing policies and laws, and that would not be conducive to
the work of the Steering Committee.
42. Dr LAU Chee-sing asked whether there were plans to consult Heung
Yee Kuk or any of the Rural Committees about BSAP. He suggested
picking an appropriate timing for the consultation, and then
presentations could be made in regular meetings of Heung Yee Kuk. Ms
Christine LOH said that Heung Yee Kuk was one of the major stakeholders
and the Government would approach it for BSAP at an earlier stage as
appropriate. Heung Yee Kuk was also welcomed to advise appropriate
occasions where the BSAP Committee could reach out to them on BSAP.
Mr CHAN Yiu-keung supplemented that there were Heung Yee Kuk
members in the BSAP Steering Committee and Working Groups, and they
were welcomed to provide comments on priority issues in meetings or
via email whenever necessary.
VIII. Date of Next Meeting
43. Prof. LAM Kin-che thanked this Working Group and encouraged
members that the implementation of the BSAP would provide better
direction to the future of biodiversity conservation in Hong Kong. The
Convenor thanked everybody for their comments and announced that
17
the next meeting would be scheduled in March or April. The exact date
of meeting would be confirmed in due course.
Action
44. There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 17:02
p.m.