When country parks were designated in 1976, it must have seemed that Hong Kong's countryside was secured forever. But this is a fallacy that has caused more angst and soul-searching among the community than virtually any domestic controversy since the handover. Twenty-five years ago, when farms were handed down from father to son, the New Territories was a patchwork of paddy fields. Who could predict the exodus from the land, or that urbanisation would displace rural societies?
Indigenous villagers raised in virtual poverty have since found themselves owners of the most scarce and sought-after commodity in Hong Kong; virgin land in lovely surroundings. Since many are absentee landlords, it is hardly surprising if they prefer to sell to the highest bidder, or exploit their acreage for the last cent they can extract from it.
The Environment and Food Bureau is under no illusion about the effect of its proposal to use public funds to buy up environmentally sensitive land. It knows dollar signs will switch on in every New Territory landowner's eyes. And that the Government could be pitchforked into a price war that knows no upper limit.
However, this is an issue which involves the greater good of the whole community, as well as the legacy of future generations. If strong measures are needed to protect threatened land and ecology, they must be taken. Once lost, the wild places are gone forever and the SAR is robbed of an irreplaceable heritage. That cannot be allowed to happen.
Foreseeing the problems that beset this plan means there is time to circumvent them. The first thing to do is look again at the Land Resumption Ordinance to specify that it can be used for conservation purposes as well as public purposes such as road building or railway routes.
With up to 50 vulnerable areas unprotected, speedy action is called for. If the bureau's proposal is adopted - and providing the Appeal Court rejects the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation's continuing fight for the Long Valley route - the valley could be saved in perpetuity.
