A WILD IDEA

Bosco Chan, recently appointed director for World Wide Fund for Nature, thinks that it's possible to balance wildlife conservation with urban development

- Zabrina Lo

“Can you hear the birds flapping their wings?” Bosco Chan halts with the agility of a cat on the narrow, wobbly pontoon bridge in Mai Po’s restricted area and points towards a distant flock of birds, barely visible, gliding across the blue sky. After more than two decades of birdwatching, his eyes and ears are more attuned to the subtle sights and sounds of wildlife than the average Hongkonger.

As the new director of conservation at World Wide Fund for Nature-Hong Kong (WWF), Chan goes on weekly field trips to the heart of Hong Kong’s pristine wetlands to observe the conservation work being done by his teams. He believes getting out into nature is the best way to inform high-level decisions on wildlife conservation and public environmental policies.

These field trips are the tip of the iceberg that is his mammoth remit. Part of his role, which he began last October, involves closely monitoring the government’s Lantau Tomorrow initiative, an ambitious project to build a third business district on a manmade island in the waters surrounding Lantau Island over the next two decades; and also of the Northern Metropolis plan, announced in the 2021 policy address, which will turn around 300 sq km of the northern New Territories into a residential, technology and economic hub, creating housing and job opportunities for 2.5 million people. “If not done well, they will have an unprecedented impact on our natural environment outside the protected area of Hong Kong,” Chan says of the development projects.