Wetland conservation in Hong Kong: evaluationof public-private-partnership model through the case study of Fung LokWai

Abstract

Conserving ecologically important sites under private ownership has long been the problem to the Government. In Mai Po and Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site, wetland habitat comprises of a number of fishponds under private ownership. The land ownership issue hinders these fishponds from wetland conservation. Conventional conservation approach, which relies on nature reserve designation and land acquisition, is not always applicable due to huge financial implication.

To resolve the issue, the Government launched Public-private Partnership Scheme in 2004, to encourage wetland conservation projects on private lands through integration of wetland conservation and development. In recent years, projects applied through Public-private Partnership Scheme have received strong objection from the public and green groups. They criticize the projects will impose potential impacts on wetland habitat and threats on biodiversity values. This study identified the inadequacies of Public-private Partnership Scheme and to analyze the root causes leading to ineffectiveness.

The result of evaluation found several inadequacies in Public-private Partnership Scheme, including (i) ignorance of overall biodiversity values; (ii) weak linkage between conservation and development objectives and result in incompatible land uses; (iii) neglected the interest of powerless stakeholders in the design of trade-off and incentives; (iv) lacks of other policies, cross-departmental and regional planning supports; (v) uncertainty in long-term financial arrangement; and (vi) top-down and unidirectional participation process.

These inadequacies are further categorized into five root causes leading to ineffectiveness of PPP scheme, including (i) limitations of incentive, (ii) lack of clear conservation targets, (iii) passive and rigid mechanism, (iv) top-down participation process, and (v) project-based policy. Based on these root causes, the Government’s motivation in conservation is much lag behind when compared to the public expectation. Its effort in facilitation is limited and critically influences the effectiveness of Public-private Partnership Scheme. Its passive and supervision role of the Government hinder the mechanism of Public-private Partnership Scheme search for better integration of wetland conservation and development.