Hong Kong Country Park Case Study

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Evaluation of the establishment of the Hong Kong Geopark in promoting environmental sustainability in Hong Kong and possible solutions to the park Introduction Hong Kong is not only a shopping paradise, but it is also a city that has many parks and nature reserves. In fact, about 70% of the land in Hong Kong is a green area (HKSAR, 1976). Apart from country parks, there are also eight geosites in Sai Kung and the Northeast New Territories. These officially became the Hong Kong Global Geopark in 2011, a part of the Global Geoparks Network, because of the spectacular hexagonal columns distributed in Sai Kung and the volcanic rocks formed by violent volcanic activities (Owen & Shaw, 2011). The Hong Kong government aims to implement the geopark…show more content…
Before the establishment of the Hong Kong geopark, these geosites were not covered by these two ordinances. Tourists could take away any rocks in the area, even damaging the rocks would not be prosecuted. Further destruction to the natural habitat in the geosites was resulted. Now, the coverage of the Country Park Ordinance has extended to the Hong Kong geopark, covering over 90% of the area. Legal regulation theoretically can stop the increase of illegal activities in the geopark, rare geological features can be well-preserved in the park. This can help minimise the negative impact to the natural environment in Hong…show more content…
However, this may have negative impact on the environment. There is a growing concern about the litter problem in the geopark. Since the government purposed to minimise human intervention to the geopark, there is only a small amount of rubbish bin in the park. Some tourists may drop litter on the ground instead of throwing them into the rubbish bin (Chiu, 2011). It shows that some tourists’ awareness of environmental conservation is not high. Rubbish like cans and plastic bags may pollute the environment of the geopark, decreasing the biodiversity of the geoareas. For instance, coral reefs in Sharp Island are under the threat of water pollution because of the serious littering near the coast of Sharp Island. According to Green Power, the coverage of coral reef in Sharp Island has reduced 100m^2(Green Power, 2014), the coral bleaching problem becomes apparent. This shows that the littering problem may lead to disastrous consequences to the park and neighbouring

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