The project calls for converting more than 600 hectares (1,483 acres) near the city limits into a technology hub. Around half of the land will be used to develop the innovation and technology industry, while the rest will become a new city center that will create up to 54,000 apartments.
Green groups fear the Technopole project will result in the loss of 240 hectares of wetland reserves and wetland buffers south of the Shenzhen River.
Most of that wetland area was added in a 2023 plan amendment, with an environmental impact assessment already underway.
2. How is an environmental impact assessment conducted?
According to a law enacted in 1998, development projects with an area of at least 50 hectares are subject to an investigation to see whether the project proponent has done its best to avoid or minimize negative impacts on the ecosystem. It is mandatory to conduct an environmental impact assessment.
The outline environmental impact assessment for Santin Technopole was finalized in June 2021, two years before the project was expanded into a protected wetland area. The report was released and made available to the public in February.
The Environmental Advisory Committee is expected to consider the report and make recommendations on Monday. It is up to the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency to decide whether to accept the report.
It is unusual for such reports to be rejected for major infrastructure projects.
One precedent is the Lok Ma Chau branch line construction project in 2000, when the design plan required replacing the above-ground rail line with a tunnel after the authorities rejected the evaluation report.
Environmental Impact Report on Bird Misidentification for Hong Kong Border Project
Environmental Impact Report on Bird Misidentification for Hong Kong Border Project
3. What are environmentalists concerned about?
Ten advocacy groups, including Greenpeace, the Hong Kong World Wildlife Fund and the Transnational Environmental Affairs Association, called on the council’s government advisers to reject the report.
The organization said in its February report it identified 35 violations of statutory requirements and guidelines, including new It also included a request for a detailed evaluation summary.
They also identified 27 “significant technical assessment and data errors.” For example, there has been no adequate assessment of how habitat loss and fragmentation will affect the survival of the Eurasian otter, which was ‘rediscovered’ in Mai Po Wetland Park in the 1980s.
One of the major oversights, the groups argued, was that the report only included four species of birds that primarily feed on fish to assess the functional value of fishponds affected by the project.
That meant many other species were missed, including otters, diving birds, grebes, white-bellied rails, night herons, dragonflies, amphibians and reptiles. Some species are listed as endangered.
“if [they] approve [environment impact assessment report] It is full of mistakes and flaws, is unscientific and substandard, and is likely to follow the same path as the golf course. [in Fanling] It could risk a judicial review,” Greenpeace senior campaigner Chan Halcyon said on Wednesday.
The Department of Environmental Protection defended its handling of the process, saying it would consider the requirements comprehensively and carefully when considering the report.
It also argued that the new “protected park” would ensure that there would be no net loss in the ecological function or environmental protection capacity of the wetland in question.
4. How can legal challenges affect the project?
Judicial review, if initiated by relevant stakeholders and accepted by a court, can stall a government project, regardless of the outcome.
In 2010, Tung Chung residents filed a lawsuit against the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge environmental impact assessment study.
Although the Court of Appeal ruled in the government’s favor in September 2011, the case still delayed the start of construction by about a year and increased the budget by about HK$6.5 billion.
Plans to build public housing on part of the Fanling Golf Course come under similar threat after the Hong Kong Golf Club filed a judicial review on Wednesday challenging “errors and non-compliance” in the housing project’s impact assessment report. facing. -Hectare premises.
Innovation and Technology Industry MP Duncan Chiu said the industry was “deeply concerned” that Technopole’s site preparation work would be stalled as a result, and urged the government to reach an agreement with all stakeholders to prevent delays. He said he wanted to.
Councilor Edward Lau Kwok-fan expressed support for the development, saying the evaluation report complied with general regulations. He said he was confident wetland habitat would not be harmed by construction.
Green groups say impact assessment of Hong Kong technopole project is rejected
Green groups say impact assessment of Hong Kong technopole project is rejected
Four business lobbies, including the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Hong Kong China Industry Association, suggested on Friday that the government may formulate a “strategy” to start construction sooner.
“The proportion of related land at issue in Sanda Technopole’s current plans is relatively small and will not delay the overall progress of the project,” the companies said in a joint statement. “The problems at issue are not insurmountable.”
5. What is the government’s plan to compensate for wetland loss?
The Civil Engineering Development Bureau announced that it will construct a 338-hectare wetland conservation park in Sanpu Shu, an existing low-lying wetland area just a stone’s throw from downtown Shenzhen. However, details have not yet been provided.
Officials reiterated that compensation plans should “focus on quality over quantity” and that small, well-managed protected areas are sufficient to compensate for larger wetland areas lost to development. It suggests something.