Pressure is mounting for a pilot development and conservation project in ecologically sensitive Sha Lo Tung to be shelved after 10 environmental groups jointly voiced their concerns about it.
The groups said the project, in which a developer plans a columbarium on part of the 4.1-hectare site while conserving the rest, could destroy the butterfly and dragonfly haven. They also said it offers a HK$6 billion opportunity to the developer.
Describing it as 'against common sense' and 'not in line with government policies', they said the government should do a land-swap deal with the Sha Lo Tung Development Company, allowing the columbarium, with its 670,000 urn niches, to be built somewhere else. The Sha Lo Tung site should then be incorporated into the adjacent Pat Sin Leng Country Park.
Ruy Barretto, a specialist in environmental law, said the project was not in line with the government's 2004 nature-conservation policy and should be shelved until the incoming government reviewed the policy.
'We're sure that other fresh and open minds looking at this will see our proposal as sensible,' said Barretto, a barrister and member of the Hong Kong Countryside Foundation that was set up last year with chief executive-elect Leung Chun-ying as one of the founders.
The project was launched after a policy change in 2004 to allow a public-private partnership to develop the less sensitive areas of a site while preserving most of the rest at the developer's expense. The developer would work in partnership with an environmental group. In this case, Green Power is the partner.