“It takes 10 years to grow trees, but 100 to rear people,” a Chinese proverb says. Ten years ago, in response to public demand for more greening space, the Civil Engineering and Development Department developed Greening Master Plans (GMPs) for urban areas to carry out greening works in a systematic way and on a district basis. After eight years of efforts, such works have brought us an additional 11 hectares of greening area, and many of the projects have won prizes in professional landscape design.

Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world. Its early developments fell mainly on both sides of Victoria Harbour, so the development density in the urban area is very high. This poses great challenges to greening works and efforts to seek more greening spaces. Factors that hinder growth of trees include narrow roads with high pedestrian flow; space limitations; concerns for pedestrians’ and drivers’ lines of vision; reserved areas for passenger drop-off, cargo handling and other commercial activities; large advertising signboards; blocking of sunlight by verandahs of both old Chinese buildings and modern high-rises; and the existence of numerous underground public facilities.

Developing district-based GMPs is one of the ways to cope with these challenges. A GMP seeks to define the overall greening framework of a district, establish greening themes and propose suitable planting species. It also serves as a guide for all parties involved in planning, design and implementation of greening works. Generally speaking, it covers public footpaths and dividing strips. To ensure trees grow healthily, we will inspect carefully the actual environment and features of land uses, study in detail every possible site for planting, choose suitable plant species selectively, and improve the quality of the soil through constructing soil trenches with supporting planks to strengthen the weight-bearing capacity of walkways.

While implementing the works of the GMPs, the department liaises closely with the community and explains to the locals and store owners the merits of planting and the greening design details. We set up groups comprising local District Council members and representatives from related government departments to review the recommendations of the GMPs together. We also hold community forums in the districts to engage members of the public and gather views of the locals and stakeholders towards greening within the community.

The Government has been actively implementing the works of urban GMPs and has planted over 20,000 trees and 5 million shrubs in three phases to beautify our urban landscape. We have tried to plant various species with different flowering seasons and seasonal leaf colours, so as to enrich the scenery of different seasons and enhance our urban landscape. For instance, the new greening works along Nathan Road from Tsim Sha Tsui to Mong Kok and along Wan Chai to the Central waterfront have achieved remarkable results. These works have not only won recognition from the community, but have also won many professional landscape design prizes, including the 2008 environment design task group silver medal and 2006 landscape planning and study project group merit award offered by the Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects, as well as a 2006 landscape planning merit project award given by the British Landscape Institute.

In addition, we hold seminars and exhibitions on greening for secondary and primary schools and other related bodies to promote plant caring. Words of encouragement expressed by students taking part in these community activities have motivated us to work harder. We also organise public planting activities to engage the community. For example, before the completion of the planting works at Lai Po Road in Sham Shui Po, we held a community planting ceremony and arranged outdoor lessons for secondary school students in the district to give them field experience in greening works.

Greening helps beautify the environment, makes our living place more comfortable, cleans the air and relieves the urban heat island effect. The Government will continue to increase the greening proportion in the new development areas and redevelopment projects to enhance the living environment of the community.