Transcript of remarks by SEN
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Reporter: Secretary, do we have enough protection and place for green belt zones or country parks? From the protection for them, basically, from to protect them from the bulldozers, now that the Government has set up a Land Supply Task Force, and there are complaints that there are not enough green voices inside the Task Force.
Secretary for the Environment: I said earlier that the new platform would provide an opportunity for the public and major stakeholders, including all the green groups, to voice their opinions, so that the whole community can base on facts and data to arrive at a consensus about land supply. So, it's too early to say that whether it will touch on country parks and to what extent. But, I said earlier again that, we are having the established policy to conserve our country parks. For instance, in the past five years, we have increased the country park areas by around 38 hectares. And, in the coming years, we are going to establish a new country park in the Robin’s Nest, involving about 500 hectares of country park areas. So, we are supporting the conservation of our rural areas, including, in particular, our country parks, to increase its areas and quality.
To add that, when we are concerning about hiking and also biodiversity, it's not only country parks, but there are also rural areas outside country parks that are in need of conservation. So, we're talking about Sha Lo Tung and Lai Chi Wo, those areas outside country parks are also gaining the Government's new and innovative support to conserve. In terms of biodiversity, and in terms of eco-tourism, etc, I think our current policy is very clear to conserve our rural area, including biodiversity.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, September 2, 2017
Issued at HKT 13:31
Issued at HKT 13:31
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