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Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Hok-ming and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, in the Legislative Council meeting today (November 9) :
Question:
In his Policy Address announced last month, the Chief Executive pointed out that for selected ecologically important areas, a pilot scheme involving management agreements and public-private partnership ("PPP") would be carried out as a priority and that under the scheme, land owners would participate voluntarily and non-governmental organizations would provide the funding for conservation work. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) as the Environment and Conservation Fund Committee has approved an allocation of $4.6 million for the implementation of three pilot management agreement projects at Fung Yuen and Long Valley, of the respective amounts of funds committed in respect of such projects by the non-governmental organizations responsible for managing the land concerned;
(b) of the implementation timetables for such pilot projects, and whether the authorities have any measures to monitor their progress; and
(c) as an inter-departmental Task Force is studying six PPP proposals, when the authorities expect such studies to be completed and whether they will brief the public on the evaluation work and results?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Government announced a new nature conservation policy in November 2004 to better achieve the nature conservation objectives, in particular to enhance the conservation of ecologically important sites which are in private ownership. Under the new policy, 12 priority sites have been identified for enhanced conservation by using some quantitative and scientific methods and they have been certified by the experts. The Administration undertook to implement a pilot scheme on two new measures, i.e. Management Agreements (MA) and Public-Private Partnership (PPP), to enhance conservation of these sites.
On 6 October, the Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF) Committee approved an allocation of $4.62 million to three non-governmental organizations, namely the Tai Po Environmental Association (TPEA), the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (HKBWS) and the Conservancy Association (CA), for the implementation of three pilot MA projects at Fung Yuen and Long Valley. In addition to the ECF funding, TPEA, HKBWS and CA will contribute about $310,000, $160,000 and $390,000 respectively to their projects to meet part of the projects' expenditures, such as staff remuneration, administration cost and purchase of materials.
The three recipient organizations will also formulate different long-term measures to ensure the sustainability of the concerned MA projects, including organizing eco-tours and conservation education programmes, formulating sustainable habitat management strategies, launching fund-raising programmes and selling products, etc.
(b) All three projects will commence in the next two months and last for two years. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department will closely monitor the implementation of these projects and join the relevant project advisory committees to directly advise on their implementation.
The recipient organizations also need to sign an agreement with the ECF and comply with the terms of the agreement, such as submitting statement of accounts regularly and carrying out procurement in accordance with specified procedures. Moreover, the recipient organizations have to submit progress report to the Government once every three months to provide information on the progress and financial position of the projects. The ECF will disburse funds to the relevant organizations by installments, subject to the satisfactory progress of the projects. The recipient organizations also have to submit completion reports to the Government within two months after completion of the projects.
(c) The Government has set up an Inter-departmental Task Force to examine the six proposals submitted under the PPP Pilot Scheme. Owing to the complexity and variables involved in the Scheme, the time required for vetting the PPP proposals is longer than that for the MA Pilot Scheme. Upon completion of the vetting process, we will inform the public of our evaluation work and results as soon as possible.
Ends/Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Issued at HKT 14:42
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