Hong Kong’s ‘ecological deficit’ dangerously high, say conservationists
Conservation groups warn that city's demand for resources is 150 times greater than supply and drastic changes are needed to avoid crisis
Hong Kong's "ecological deficit" is the ninth largest in the world and the second biggest in Asia, a report by conservation groups WWF and the Global Footprint Network has found.
And they warned that if everyone in the world lived like Hongkongers, almost three Planet Earths would be needed to satisfy global demand for resources.
Cheung Chi-wah, head of the WWF's footprint programme, said the growing biocapacity deficit is particularly dangerous for the city as it needs to import natural resources, often from countries that are also running deficits.
The ecological deficit is the gap between the city's ecological footprint - its demand for resources such as crops, forest products, seafood, and land plus its carbon footprint - and its biocapacity - the supply of biologically productive land and sea area. The report warned that the city's demand is now 150 times greater than supply.
"Hong Kong has to make changes and adapt to the rules of this 'new game', to become less vulnerable to fluctuations in global market prices and supply disruption," said Cheung. "We hope the government, corporations and individuals can take responsibility and adopt a 'consume less, consume wisely' approach."
The city currently has an ecological footprint of 4.7 global hectares (gha) per person compared to 4.0 gha in the last WWF's ecological foot print report published in 2010. Biocapacity per person dropped from 0.04 gha in the last report to 0.03 gha. Today's world average, in comparison, is 2.7 gha and 1.8 gha respectively, the report said.