Villagers fighting conservation have made millions selling land

Property owners in Lantau's Tai Ho villages, where a conflict over conservation recently erupted, have sold up to 70 per cent of their land to developers for at least tens of million dollars, including sites zoned for conservation, property records show.

Amid criticism from an environmental activist who questioned whether villagers really wanted to restore farming on their land, as they have claimed, a rural leader insisted their property rights be respected.

On Sunday, some residents of the north Lantau villages of Pak Mong, Tai Ho and Ngau Kwu Long cleared part of a mangrove stand in a protest against a new zoning plan that would protect 4.6 hectares of land in the 230-hectare Tai Ho valley and estuary as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI). Most of the area covered is water, such as hillside streams or the estuary itself.

The valley is considered the third-most ecologically important site in Hong Kong, with a network of natural streams that supports more than 60 species of freshwater fish. The villagers feared the zoning restriction would impede their rights to develop and farm their own land.

However, land registry records show that most of the private land covered by the SSSI zoning exists on a mud flat at the water's edge. That included the single largest piece of private land, a 1.1-hectare plot of mud that floods at high tide.

Villagers said they wanted the right to restore their property to its former use as farmland.

However, records including an aerial photo taken in the 1960s and a modern map showed no land suitable for farming in the plot. That area is shown on maps as water. In a land lease from the late 19th century, the area was officially marked "waste".