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To enhance public awareness of the importance of 'greening' the environment,
various community involvement projects and educational activities were
organised in 2003. These included the District Green Hong Kong Ambassadors
Scheme, community planting days, Greening Hong Kong Activities Subsidy
Scheme, theme flower shows, horticultural courses and seminars. The Greening
School Subsidy Scheme was also organised to promote greening initiatives
at schools and it attracted the participation of 746 schools and kindergartens.
In addition, 40 schools took part in the 'School Planting Plot in Park'
Scheme and made arrangement for some of their students to practise gardening
under the guidance of LCSD staff and their teachers. A total of 276 500
students from 934 schools participated in the 'One Person, One Flower'
Programme in which impatiens seedlings were distributed to students for
growing at home or in schools. The Best Landscape Award for Private Property
Development was launched in December to promote greening in private property
developments.
The Hong Kong Flower Show, an annual region-wide event, is organised
for the enjoyment of the public and to promote a green culture in society.
Participants range from horticultural associations and floral art clubs
— both local and from the Mainland — to green groups, District
Councils, schools and members of the public. The show has been growing
in size, content and popularity every year. Apart from numerous pleasing
landscape displays, artistic floral arrangements and colourful horticultural
exhibits, the show provides many other fringe activities. These include
talks and seminars, demonstrations, guided tours, musical and cultural
performances, photographic and drawing competitions, horticultural workshops
and family fun games. In addition, various types of plants and horticultural
products are put on sale in commercial stalls inside the showground. More
than 130 local and overseas horticultural organisations from 11 countries
took part in the 2003 show held in March at Victoria Park, attracting
a record attendance of over 550 000 visitors. For the first
time in the history of the Flower Show, some 500 students and teachers
joined hands and derived much enjoyment in preparing a 600-square-metre
'mosaiculture' display. The display was made up of 35 000
flowers of 20 species. It was designed in a 'Dreamy Wonderland' theme
with features including colourful trees, a watermelon house, a beautiful
butterfly, a snail, an earthworm burrowing out of the ground and mushrooms.
The display proved to be a major attraction.
The LCSD is responsible for improving the environment of Hong Kong through
the planting of ornamental trees and shrubs in public gardens and roadside
amenity areas, and the preservation of trees. It maintains all public
open spaces in the form of parks, gardens, sports grounds, football pitches
and children's playgrounds, and also amenity plots and soft landscape
plantings alongside highways and public roads. The services provided include
landscape planting, horticultural research, tree maintenance and conservation.
During the year, the department planted 40 000 trees as well as three
million shrubs and seasonal flowers at these places and carried out landscape
improvement projects for 33 hectares of park land and roadside amenity
areas, including footbridges.
To enhance urban greenery and improve the environment of existing footbridges,
the LCSD initiated an improvement programme at footbridges located in
various districts by planting flowering plants in portable planters. The
programme was completed in December, covering 19 footbridges at a cost
of $1.52 million. |
