Land owners act on Tai Po green belt sites
Two plots of protected land have been excavated, but the owner of one insists he plans only to build an organic farm there
As officials desperate for new housing sites consider converting green belt land for the purpose, some private owners are already way ahead of them.
Two adjacent sites in a green belt near Tai Po have been cleared and excavated in what environmental activists say is typical of the "destroy first, develop later" approach often seen in the New Territories.
But the owner of one of the sites near Wun Yiu insists that he just wants to establish an organic farm there.
The formation of the site and removal of vegetation in the area were discovered by Green Power volunteers employed to conduct a butterfly survey there on January 2, the group's senior environmental affairs manager Matthew Sin Ka-wah said.
The Planning Department says there is nothing it can do because the land, despite being zoned green belt, is not covered by a draft development area plan.
But the Lands Department has intervened, as part of the area is government land. Warning signs were erected, although the department said the digging did not violate the land lease.