Background
Unique environment in Hong Kong
Hong Kong，which has a total land area of about 1,100 square kilometers, is special not just within her own region but also in the world. At first glance, one may think it is a city fully built up with concrete. Yet when you look carefully, you will notice that only 30% of the land is highly developed, whereas the other 70% remains as rural, half of which is protected by the Country Parks Ordinance. Many other cities in the world have their boundaries reaching out extensively far from the metropolis. Their residents have to drive hours before they can reach the countryside. On the contrary, our countryside is just within walking distance. We can easily get out from the urban area to enjoy different kinds of outdoor activities in nature.
More and more people are going to the outdoors
Since the SARS outbreak in 2003, there have been more and more people who want to adopt a healthy lifestyle and enjoy fresh air in the countryside. During the year 2003-2004, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) recorded 13 million visitors in our country parks. It is a record-breaking number in the past 24 years. Many may applaud that it is positive to have so many people visiting our country parks as it means more people appreciate nature and care about the environment and the associated ecosystems. Nonetheless, have you ever thought that too many people going to the countryside may cause various kinds of impacts to nature?
Traces left by outdoor visitors
Let us take the amount of rubbish left behind by the visitors as an example. The AFCD collected 4,100 tons of rubbish within the period 2003-2004. On average, visitors left behind 11 tons of rubbish in our country parks every day, which is about the weight of five private cars. Although the government hires cleaning service to clear the trash, a lot still remains along the hiking trails. Accumulated rubbish in the countryside not just becomes an eyesore, but also causes harm to the ecosystems and pollutes soil and water.
You may be aware of the unfavorable impacts exerted by rubbish on our environment and ecosystems, but do you know to what extent our nature may suffer from other negative impacts of human activities? There are various kinds of outdoor activities, including barbeque, hiking, camping, picnicking, flying kites, swimming or sunbathing in a beach, water sports such as snorkeling, or worshipping ancestors, etc. Many may also like to further explore nature such as watching birds, butterflies or dragonflies, while some may like taking records or photographs of wildlife. All activities cause a certain degree of impacts to nature: noise and light pollution, soil erosion and water loss, hill fires, threats to wildlife (both animals & plants), etc.
Hong Kong has a dense population, and the majority of the visits to our countryside concentrates on holidays and weekends. If nobody care their negative impacts of their activities, it is afraid that the countryside will be full of our traces, causing the loss of her beauty at the same time. The intense use of the countryside and the related environmental problems will also affect the quality of our travel experience.
The nature of “outdoor ethics”
Guess many of you have similar encounters when you visit nature as a kid: to satisfy our curiosity, we played with small animals collected from the shore, took pictures and brought them back home; some might collect beautiful shells from the beach. These actions did not seem to cause any undesirable effect on nature and the experience was so enjoyable. However, imagine that if every visitor after you follows you, takes small animals away from their original habitats and shells back home as souvenirs, how can the latecomers enjoy the area and appreciate these interesting things anymore?
“Outdoor ethics” focuses on how people should conduct our outdoor activities appropriately, by taking into consideration the benefits and interests of nature, wildlife and other outdoor users. By minimizing impacts, everyone can enjoy the outdoors. This is also an essential part of environmental education. The only way to ensure that every one can enjoy our nature is that each individual must have the decorum and behave ethically.
Project Introduction
ecobus encourages everyone to come close to nature. But at the same time, we hope people could pay attention to your attitude and the carrying capacity of the environment when having outdoor activities in the countryside. Treasure our natural resources and beautiful landscape. Let your own self, other visitors and our future generations get a chance to enjoy our valuable natural assets.
We are pleased to be funded by the Environment and Conservation Fund and the Environmental Campaign Committee, who enable us to promote “outdoor ethics” in Hong Kong. We will publish various promotional and educational materials, and organize a series of courses and workshops. In addition, a platform for knowledge and information exchange will be built to let the public deepen their understanding on the topic.
