If you are a regular hiker and see piles of rubbish, an eroded trail, a fallen tree or even an animal carcass, you might think there is little you can do. But there is an app that allows you to report the incident and the Agricultural, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) will fix it. TrailWatch is for planning and tracking your route, but it also has a ‘report incident’ function. You can take a picture, tag it with a predetermined label such as litter, and add a description. The app developers have a direct line to the AFCD and will alert them. “If it’s in the country parks they are very responsive. If it’s something like a waste dump, it gets cleared in a day or two. A felled tree might take a few more days. It depends on what is reported,” said Alicia Lui, project director at TrailWatch. “The AFCD are very good. They are very responsible, most of them are very very passionate about nature. We have a good relationship and they have a good relationship with most environmental NGOs.” Should trail runners pay to save Hong Kong’s country parks? There has been an uptake in reported incidents as more people are hiking, unable to travel away from Hong Kong for a holiday. But compared to the 5.2 million kilometres of hiking logged on TrailWatch since its inception in 2014, the reports are minimal. “The function isn’t used as much as we’d like, as people don’t know they can report it,” Lui said. “They don’t know what is reportable or they don’t know what will happen to it. For example, if you see a step half broken, many people wouldn’t think to report it. But you can and we’ll alert the AFCD to fix it.” Reporting via the app is just one thing Lui would like hikers and trail runners to do. She says that although country parks users are eco-conscious, it would be good to see them proactively volunteering. “Everyone should be eco-conscious. Hong Kong’s nature belongs to everyone in Hong Kong,” Lui said. “Everyone should be aware that any step you take along a trail damages it a little bit.” Lui sees before and after pictures of trails widening as more people head out hiking and have to pass each other, or go off the beaten track for Instagram pictures. “We hope people who are using the trails give back – volunteer programmes, trail clean-ups, NGO programmes,” Lui said, adding the AFCD and a host of NGOs have accessible programmes that are always looking for people to help. Education is also key, so users know how their actions could impact the biodiversity. Another way to help is to stay up-to-date with the news, so if there is any prospect of development in the country parks, as was suggested last year to ease the housing crisis, they can make their voices heard in opposition. “Protection of Hong Kong’s environment tends to be with people who are very eco-savvy or conservationists,” Lui added. “But everyone should be eco-conscious.”
