For the past few years, along with other environmentalists, I have been invited by the chief executive to discuss areas of concern prior to his policy address. Every year, I have told him that our marine environment and collapsing fisheries are the most pressing conservation issues in Hong Kong. As usual, marine conservation merited not a single mention in this year's policy address.
The dire state of our marine environment is an easy problem to fix. It requires a little intelligence, some commitment, and not a great deal of money. In addition, a recent socio-economic study by the University of British Columbia shows that investing in a solution to our fisheries crisis results in a very significant return on investment in terms of payback to other parts of the economy.
One of WWF's proposals is the creation of sizeable no-take marine reserves. Our initial aim is 10 per cent of local waters. Bill Ballantine, the famous marine conservationist from New Zealand and pioneer campaigner for no-take reserves, said on a recent visit here that we should be more ambitious. 'Go for 50 per cent,' he said. 'Hong Kong will be an overnight sensation. The whole world will speak of you with admiration - you'll be on the front pages and at the forefront of conservation.'
It was a dramatic call. Not as dramatic, however, as the 'top priority' 1999 recommendation of the Environmental Policy Working Group, set up by Tung Chee-hwa, that all of our waters should be turned into a marine park. Here's a message for Donald Tsang Yam-kuen: this would be a legacy on a scale of former governor Murray MacLehose's country park system - a lasting legacy for the ages.
In the meantime, the government still operates a free-for-all fishing policy. Mr Tsang says the problem is difficult because fishermen's livelihoods are at stake. It only takes a moment's reflection to realise that their livelihoods are at stake because there are no fish to catch. It is not an excuse for inaction. Even the fishermen feel anything is better than the status quo. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department is asleep at the wheel. Ten years after a government-commissioned report concluded that our fisheries were in a state of crisis and in need of urgent action, almost nothing has been done.
The Committee for Sustainable Fisheries was set up last year. It will talk until 2009 and then make recommendations. Its membership does not include anyone from the WWF, the most actively involved NGO on this issue in Hong Kong. Nor does it include any scientist with fisheries expertise, despite there being in Hong Kong world-renowned experts in this field.