'Red list' planned for plants and animals
Local committee will identify species in need of protectionand monitoring
Hong Kong will draw up its own "red list" of plant and animal species in need of preservation.
Modelled on the global red list maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a preliminary draft is due in September.
It is part of the government's efforts to fulfil its responsibilities under the Convention on Biological Diversity that was extended to the city by Beijing in 2011.
The mainland already has its own regional red list.
Hong Kong's most celebrated endangered species is the Chinese white dolphin.
But the list may also take in species that are abundant in Hong Kong but scarce elsewhere, such as freshwater fish Parazacco spilurus, which is regarded as vulnerable on the mainland.
Plans for the list were outlined at a meeting of the Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan Steering Committee, which was established by the government to come up with an action plan to guide conservation in the five years from 2020.
