GREEN
PROMOTION
The LCSD runs a Green Ambassador Scheme under which District Council members are invited to serve as Green Ambassadors and help promote community involvement in the surveillance of trees. By March 2017, over 430 prominent citizens had joined the scheme.
The Hong Kong Flower Show was held at Victoria Park from March 10 to 19, 2017, with the theme flower for the year the much-loved Rose. The show, which was supported by more than 240 organisations, attracted a record-breaking attendance of over 670 000.
Over 350 000 flowering plants were on display at the show, including 40 000 pots of roses along with many other exotic flowers and plants from all over the world. The show also featured magnificent floral art displays created by horticultural groups from Hong Kong, the Mainland and overseas. Participants included local, the Mainland and overseas horticultural organisations, private firms and government departments.
In celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Hong Kong’s Reunification with the Motherland, the show’s floral displays and landscaped gardens were enhanced with subtle light effects at night and two brand-new attractions - a maze garden and a floral marquee where visitors could take a coffee break and enjoy live music performances - were introduced. Alongside the botanical wonders there was a line-up of fringe activities that included three special programmes, ‘Evening Concert’, ‘Dance Night’ and ‘Extravaganza’, where the audience can enjoy music, dance and other delightful performances.
As usual, a wide range of educational and entertainment programmes were also organised for visitors. These included horticultural talks, flower arrangement demonstrations, musical performances, cultural presentations, exhibits, drawing and photo competitions, greening activity workshops, green promotional stalls, and guided tours.
As part of its community greening programme, in June 2016 the department organised the Best Landscape Award for Private Property Development 2016. This award aims at improving the environment of private properties by encouraging good landscape design and horticultural maintenance. The award attracted 171 entries. In addition, around 220 green promotional and outreach activities were held during the year, with over 53 000 people taking part.
Some 6 900 Green Volunteers from the 18 districts were recruited under the Green Volunteer Scheme to participate in voluntary services involving greening activities, and to serve as stewards at various green promotional activities. In 2016-17, around 490 greening activities were organised for the Green Volunteers.
The Community Garden Programme, which covers all 18 districts, encourages members of the public to participate in community-level greening activities and to adopt green practices in their daily lives. The programme is also designed to raise public awareness of environmental protection issues through gardening activities. The 18 districts have now set up 23 community gardens, and in 2016-17, 62 gardening courses were organised in which more than 13 000 people took part.
The department continued to work with the District Councils and local communities to organise Community Planting Days throughout the year. In 22 planting days, involving over 5 000 participants, 47 trees and 24 010 shrubs were planted.
The Greening School Subsidy Programme, conducted during the year as part of a school greening programme, provided subsidies of $4.7 million to 890 schools and kindergartens. The money is used to help make school campuses greener and to provide green educational activities for students, with the assistance of part-time instructors. All the greening projects were assessed, and the winning schools received a Greening School Project Award. Around 372 800 students were given pots of seedlings to nurture at home or at school under the ‘One Person, One Flower’ Scheme, which encourages young people to grow their own plants.