Ma Hang, Stanley
The Conservancy Association received a complaint in April 2004 from the Kwan Yin Buddhist Monastery that the Housing Department was going to construct a car park of the arboretum, right in front of the temple's entrance, where lots of trees would be cut down. CA knew that this would involve a large-scale tree felling as the large arboretum would be built. The exact number could not be known till we received the tree felling schedule from Town Planning through due process in August . According to the document, 542 out of 1047 trees on the headland were to be felled.
CA still wanted to negotiate with the relevant government departments and the developer, but to no avail. A local newspaper broke the story on 4th October but no information regarding the number of trees to be cut down were officially known. CA held a press tour on the very same day and publicized the incident.
Though a press statement by the Housing Department mentioned that the trees on the headland had low ecological values, but Leung Chin-man, Director of Housing, said he would review the project.
Representatives of CA and Leung Chin-man met on 6th October at HA Headquarters. Mr Leung promised that he would adopt an "all open" attitude towards reviewing the project; a tripartite working group involving HA, CA and the developer would be established, providing more information on how the project came about.
The project proponent later withdrew the plan. HA decided to transform the headland into a community park with nature conservation as the main theme, and organized two community workshops in late 2006 and early 2007 in which CA also took part in. The construction work was completed in 2010 and the facility was opened in early 2011.
