土沉香生態及文化保育協會

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WE DEMAND a law be enacted banning trading in wild Incense Trees and Government efforts stepped up to tackle illegal trade in Incense Trees with roots in the Mainland

 

WITHOUT LEGISTATION BANNING trading in wild Incense Trees, the problem CANNOT be resolved at the roots

 

STRIKE at the heart of illegal Incense Trees logging gangs on the Mainland to root them out  

 

The uninterrupted flow of illegal logging gangs ORIGINATES from the same MAINLAND CHINESE country

 

Illegal loggers can ONLY be ERADICATED by action aiming at the originating county of illegal logging

 

 

 

Enacting law banning trading in wild Incense Trees to resolve the problem at the roots

 

Strike at the heart of illegal Incense Trees logging gangs on the Mainland to root them out

 

 

From the information gathered by our Association on Incenses Trees across the affected areas in Hong Kong, it is revealed that in the past 4 years, over 1000 trees, 70% of which aged over several decades, were cut down.  In the past quarter alone, almost 300 Incense Trees were illegally logged in the wild . The cases of illegal logging of Incense Trees increased sharply by as high as 40% in last year. It showed that the conservation policies of the Government are not effective in tackling illegal logging of Incense Trees. Prevailing policies are neither capable of resolving the problem at its roots nor effective in stopping illegal logging activities .

 

Since 2011 when we initiated conservation activities in the community, Incense Trees aged over a hundred years have ecome endangered over large areas of rural land, including Lantau Island, Lamma Island, large areas of the countryside in the New Territories, Sai Kung etc.. We have worked hard to liaise with villagers, academic experts, hikers and conservationists .The “Save Aquilaria sinensis, In Danger of Extinction” online concern group was then established. Up to now, the group has over 500 volunteers, contributing to the conservation of Incense Trees at different levels. Over these years, we witnessed more than a hundred Incense Trees in the countryside becoming victims to illegal logging. We were deeply aggrieved by that ; thus tred our best to find solutions in the hope that Incense Trees would not become extinct in our generation.  In 2014, we compiled over a hundred cases of victimized Incense Trees. We consolidated opinions on ways to improve enforcement and legislation.  Then we submitted the cases to the Public Complaints Office of the Legislative Council Secretariat.  We also appealed to legislative councilors including the Hon. Mr. Tam Yiu Chung, Mr. Steven Ho and Ms. Claudia Mo in the hope that the Council could assist in pushing the authorities to formulate relevant law and enhance enforcement as soon as possible to save the Tree from which Hong Kong's name comes – Incense Trees.

 

Thanks to the follow-up actions taken by several Legislative Councilors who were named above , we have had communication and liaison with frontline police officers and AFCD staff in this one year or so. We could understand the difficult situations the two government departments are facing due to their limited resources. Despite their devoted efforts, illegal logging is still rampant and cannot be stopped effectively. Legislative Councilors Mr. Wong Kwok Hing and Ms. Claudia Mo have raised their concerns in the Legislative Council. From the responses of Mr. Wong Kam Sing, Secretary for the Environment and Mr. Wong Chi Kong, Director of AFC, we feel the government department heads did not take the issues seriously enough. As usual, they were shirking the responsibilities onto frontline staff and the community organizations. As a result, the frontline staff are left to handle extremely heavy workload while the relevant crime rate continues to climb. Incense Trees over a hundred years old in the wild have become extinct while those fortunate enough to remain are at risk of extinction.

 

Given the above, we now urge the Legislative Council to reopen a discussion on the issue of Incense Trees through which we hope that the Government will take the situation seriously and implement effective measures. If illegal logging cannot be eradicated, the tree from which Hong Kong gets its name, the Incense Tree, would become extinct soon enough due to government officials' inaction and neglect of responsibility.

 

Uninterrupted flow of illegal logging gangs originates from the same Mainland Chinese county

 

Illegal loggers can only be eradicated by action aiming at the originating towns of illegal logging

 

Illegal loggers mostly come from Dianbai County of Maoming in Guangdong Province. It is not a secret that these people have been engaged in illegal activities of logging Incense Trees in Hong Kong's countryside over a long period.  Such facts should have been revealed in Hong Kong Police's records.  Each year as many as hundreds of Hong Kong’s aged Incense Trees are subjected to rampant illegal logging.  These illegally logged Incense Trees can be seen in commodity trading anywhere in the County. They actually come from the same stolen goods centre where there will be Chinese and overseas buyers who come to seek supplies. The trees purchased will be crafted into artifacts and then sold as products made from incense trees with false claim that they originally come from other Southeast Asian places.  The prices claimed in speculation are very high.  Hong Kong's Security Bureau should take up the responsibility to liaise with Mainland security institutions to negotiate a way to stem these illegal and blatant activities.  The Security Bureau has the responsibility but fails to fulfill, causing Hong Kong to lose resources worth hundreds of millions of dollars due to illegal logging.  They allow these stolen resources to be traded in the county and across the Mainland.  This is a clear manifestation of neglect of responsibility.

 

We believe that Illegal loggers can only be eradicated if actions are taken targeting the originating county of illegal logging and blatant trading activities.  

 

No demand, no supply

 

Given that incense tree is not a necessity, legislating against trading and possession of incense tree should see no obstacle

 

Aquilaria sinensis (incense tree) is listed as “Vulnerable” in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and as a Wild Plant under State Protection (Category II) in China. Given the critical situation Aquilaria sinensis in Hong Kong is now facing, it is necessary to include this species in the list of regulated endangered species whose transportation and possession is prohibited. The most fundamentally effective way to stop trading of Aquilaria sinensis is by legislating in Hong Kong against such sale as a start.  We heard from some villagers a number of years ago that the illegal loggers were paid RMB 500 per day.  Coming non-stop, these loggers were engaged by a large syndicate.  Behind these people has been a huge demand from the market, one made up of collectors of Aquilaria sinensis and speculators who do not care about the likely extinction of Aquilaria sinensis.  What they do care are the rising prices of incense trees and satisfaction ftrom heir personal hobby. Nowadays, Aquilaria sinensis is no longer non-substitutable in terms of its medical value as wild incense tree can be replaced by cultivated species. As such, we really do not understand why the HKSAR government still hesitates to take measures forbidding sale in Aquilaria sinensis.

 

Mr Alan Wong Chi-kong, Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation, commented that the market of agarwood (of which Aquilaria sinensis is one type) is not in Hong Kong, so banning trading locally will have little effect. However, if Hong Kong itself does not impose a ban on the trading of Aquilaria sinensis, how can we persuade other regions/countries to take similar action?

 

Is it worth our while to give up our precious resource - Aquilaria sinensis and waste huge amount of manpower and money just for a bunch of speculators?

 

Take and go, illegal felling activities are unhindered

 

Our Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) is paying lip service to its responsibility

 

It has long been the fact that the figures of arrests made by C&ED constantly stays close to zero.  Since the smell of incense trees is so unique, we believe it should not be difficult to train anti-smuggling dogs to aid in intercepting smuggled incense trees.  However, our proposal to C&ED, in this regard, was turned down by customs officials in charge on the excuse their dogs have already had enough to take care of without including incense trees on their job list.  An offender who was arrested smuggling wild incense trees by the Mainland Customs actually claimed that should the Hong Kong Customs pay more attention and efforts to tackling activities of smuggling of incense trees, in no way was he able to smuggle the wild incense trees from Hong Kong to his home town. Due to the lip service paid by the Hong Kong Customs to its responsibility, Hong Kong has become a hot-bed of rampant smuggling activities of wild incense trees, costing us a huge loss of our precious gifts from nature, the incense trees .  

 

With C&ED’s inaction, how can we prevent smuggling of our precious trees ? Our Customs is truly a disgrace to all Hong Kong citizens!

 

Lack of resources has made our frontline departments incapable of dealing with a rising number of illegal felling cases

 

Over the past year, thanks to their ready response, we were able to join hands with the frontline officers from various departments (the Police, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, Lands Department, etc.), in combating the smuggling activities of wild incense trees.  From these joint efforts, we could appreciate the pressure these departments were under in the face of rising illegal logging activities.   For what they have done, we would like to express our heartfelt thank.  For avoidance of work overload of frontline officers and for disallowing the opportune time in combating the illegal activities to slip by, we hope that more resources, especially manpower, can be allocated to alleviate the heavy workload of frontline officers of the afore-mentioned departments.

 

Below were our observations over the years:

 

Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department is lack of adequate manpower to carry out patrols and follow up with the cases of chopped wild incense trees ;

 

The Police Force is short of staff for village patrols.  Yet not only do the police have to deal with various kinds of crimes in the rural areas, they are also required to patrol in the expansive countryside.  For these reasons, they have missed many opportunities to arrest the smugglers;

 

It takes a considerably long time for the Lands Department to remove the remainder of the wild incense trees cut or chopped down, leaving a time gap long enough for smugglers to return and take away the remaining parts.

 

Voices of Hong Kong citizens about the near extinction of Aquilaria sinensis are now growing louder and louder. We invite the heads of relevant departments to ask themselves conscientiously whether they still feel they have lived up to people's trust?

We earnestly hope the Government will take immediate action in legislating to address the problem of near extinction of wild Aquilaria sinensis in Hong Kong.

 

 

Ms Ho Pui Han

 

Executive Director of Association for the Ecological and Cultural Conservation of Aquilaria Sinensis

Initiator of online volunteer group “Save Aquilaria, In Danger of Extinction”

Chairperson of Association for Tai O Environment and Development

 

July 10,2015

 

Joint petition groups:

 

Association for Tai O Environment and Development

Association for the Ecological and Cultural Conservation of Aquilaria Sinensis

Online volunteer group “Save Aquilaria, In Danger of Extinction”

A group of New Territories residents who are concerned about the issue of Incense Tree

A group of Lantau Island residents who are concerned about the endangered Incense Tree

A group of Lamma Island residents who are concerned about the endangered Incense Tree

A group of Sai Kung residents who are concerned about the endangered Incense Tree