|
The
Conservancy Association (CA) conducted a large-scale tree survey in
the second half of this year. The survey reveals that over 85% of
the trees in housing estates and along roadsides have potential
structural risk which will prone to collapse if no proper
conservation measures are taken. The survey again shows trees in
Hong Kong are not properly protected. The Administration should
legislate for trees and increase the resources to protect trees and
safeguard public safety.
With the aid of hundreds of “Tree Lovers”, CA conducted a tree
survey in the second half of this year. The survey is divided into
two parts: trees in housing estates and along roadsides, as well as
Old and Valuable Trees (OVT). The first part studied 339 trees and
was conducted from July to December 2007 in 11 estates and the
roadsides nearby. The result was that 85% of them had structural
problems, 90% had been improperly pruned, 87% had insufficient space
to grow, 19% had been damaged by human activity.
Structural problems include decay, cavity, leaning, over-growth of
canopy and so on. Although a tree may look healthy in appearance, if
these problems are not taken care of properly, fragile parts of the
tree will be easily broken and may eventually leads to collapse.
Proper maintenance works should include correct pruning of canopy
and support by appropriate tools.
Although the condition of OVTs is better than trees on housing
estates and along roadsides, it is still not satisfactory. CA
started the survey on OVTs from September 2007, and studied 133 out
of the then 526 OVTs. It was found that 52% of them had structural
problems, 93% was poorly pruned, 91% had insufficient space to grow,
33% lacked protection, and 10% lacked proper management and
monitoring. |
|
Although the
Administration claims that there is a series of administrative and
legislative measures for tree conservation in place, as well as
professional tree experts in various departments, the reality is
simply not satisfactory. The major problems of current tree
conservation are no legislation and lack of resources, transparency
and monitoring. When public or green groups ask for information
regarding the removal or felling of trees in public places or along
roadsides, the Administration cannot provide enough information
about the trees past conditions and justification for removal or
felling them.
Current mechanism for OVT lacks transparency. When these trees are
removed or added into the Register of Old and Valuable Trees, the
public simply do not know. Regarding the OVTs died of “unidentified
reasons,” it should not be tolerated. We urge the Administraion to
increase transparency on tree conservation works so as to let the
public effectively monitor the Administration’s efforts. Pruning
OVTs should be undertaken by trained professionals and be monitored.
The Administration should also try to enlarge protection area of the
trees to provide enough growing space and prevent damage by human
activities. CA will continue to study the remaining OVTs.
While the Administration should be responsible for tree legislation
and resource redeployment, education is equally important. The
survey found that 19% of trees in estates and along roadsides were
damaged by human activities which reveals that some people still do
not aware of the importance of tree conservation. As such, CA
launched the Tree Lovers Tree Conservation Programme in 2006.
Through a series of activities including seminars, field trips,
training for identifying health problem of trees, it is hoped that
awareness of tree conservation could be heightened and cultivate the
sense to appreciate trees and nature. This year, we have trained 470
“Tree Lovers” and hundreds of them assisted in tree survey.
|
