Hong Kong

WWF has withdrawn from a controversial wetlands housing project being planned by Cheung Kong Holdings, one of Hong Kong’s biggest property developers. The NGO says it is no longer confident that plans for Fung Lok Wai project, which is located near the Mai Po Marshes – a critical sanctuary for migratory wetland birds – would meet conservation objectives.

This multi-layered environmental question keeps on being asked, seemingly with few answers that translate into action. With the Center for Biological Diversity estimating that 40 per cent of the world’s ocean surface is now littered with plastic waste, this issue must be addressed and urgently. We need to focus on the issue in a new way, and in doing so create new opportunities. Plastic waste creates large, expensive and unnecessary impact on society because of its ecological impact. Ecosystems give us everything we need to live – air, water, energy and food.

Apple's latest store in the shopping metropolis of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay has come under fire from green activists, who have been pressing hard to fight for tougher control over light pollution. The US tech giant opened its latest Hong Kong store in the new state-of-the-art Hysan Place shopping mall, which has been awarded the prestigious LEED Platinum Green Building Certification. It seems, however, that Apple, which likes to talk about its comprehensive approach to environmental responsibility, is not stepping up to the plate.

Hong Kong customs have had some success of late in tackling the underground trade of illegal wildlife products, with large shipments of smuggled wildlife goods been intercepted through its ports. Between October 2012 and January 2013, three shipments of ivory tusks were seized by Hong Kong customs. The biggest consignment included 1,209 ivory tusks seized in two containers, arriving from Tanzania and Kenya, worth an estimated USD3.5 million. The line between legal and illegal wildlife products can be blurred and rather confusing in Hong Kong. Firstly, the sale of animal parts is ubiquitous. Crocodile skin, earthworms, seahorses and countless others, are synonymous with their use in traditional medicine.

FedEx has deployed 10 all-electric commercial vehicles to its Hong Kong delivery operation. The new vehicles, capable of a full eight hour shift per charge, are the company’s first zero-emission operational vehicles in Asia Pacific.