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Environmental
Awareness and Education
Community
Support
GAINING
COMMUNITY support has been, and remains, one of the greatest
challenges of environmental protection work in the HKSAR.
Over the years, we have worked with green groups and other
community organisations to raise environmental awareness through
a range of activities and programmes. The EPD's contribution
includes giving talks and lectures; organising and running
environmental education and awareness projects for schools,
youths, corporations, government departments, other organisations
and members of the public; serving as advisers and adjudicators
of community environmental programmes; and advising community
groups and environmental committees on corporate environmental
strategies and environmental awareness programmes. We are
also developing out-reach environmental education programmes
at district level.
Chart
of Number of environmental awareness and education programmes
organised
Chart
of Number of talks given to various organisations by EPD
Image
of Environmental Protection Festival
The
2000 highlights include:
- The
annual Hong Kong Environmental Protection Festival, which
focused on waste reduction this year, and the annual World
Environment Day, which focused on clean air.
- The
Waste Recycling Campaign in Housing Estates, which grew
from about 300 public and private housing estates in 1999
to 700 estates by the end of 2000. The campaign first started
in March 1998 to encourage residents to separate paper,
aluminium cans and plastic bottles for recycling.
- The
School Waste Paper Separation and Recycling Pilot Scheme,
which was launched in 100 schools in 1999 and extended to
411 schools, and another waste recycling scheme which was
extended from nine tertiary institutes to 31 tertiary and
vocational institutes in 2000.
- The
first Green School Awards, which attracted more than 90
participants, and the second Hong Kong Eco-Business Awards,
which saw participation double to 74 businesses in 2000.
Both awards schemes aim to encourage better environmental
management.
- The
Schools Environmental Award Scheme and Student Environmental
Protection Ambassador Scheme, which reached 520 schools
and more than 8,000 students, up from 417 schools and 6,100
students in 1999. The schemes aim to cultivate a sense of
responsibility towards the environment among students. Environmental
Protection Ambassador Schemes are also organised for more
than 1,000 members of the Scouts, Girl Guides, Junior Police
Call and other community-based groups, and in 2000 were
extended to the elderly.
- The
Environment and Conservation Fund, which handed out $4.4
million for environmental education and community action
projects. The fund is financed by equal contributions from
the government and the private sector Woo Wheelock Green
Fund.
Looking
ahead, it is planned to introduce a Mobile Environmental Resource
Centre in 2001, to expand the Waste Recycling Campaign in
Housing Estates to 300 more estates and to expand the Student
Environmental Protection Ambassador Scheme to 8,800 students,
among many other initiatives.
Public
Access to Information
We place
much emphasis on making environmental information widely available
to the general public. We issue regular press releases, increasingly
make use of the Internet and respond to enquiries from the
public, media and others. Some examples of the information
we release regularly include:
- Weekly
reports on water quality at gazetted bathing beaches during
the swimming season, which are issued through the Internet,
newspapers and a hotline. An annual report on beach water
quality is published before the commencement of the bathing
season in March.
- An
hourly Air Pollution Index which has been issued since July
1999 via the Internet, a telephone hotline and press releases
to newspapers, radio and TV. API forecasts are available
daily and carried by the media.
- Statistics
on environmental prosecutions brought by the EPD, which
are released to the news media on a monthly basis. Environmental
Impact Assessments that are either in progress or completed
are released quarterly.
- Monitoring
data for rivers and streams and marine waters, which are
published in separate annual reports and are also available
on EPD's website.
In addition,
we produced 31 publications in 2000 ranging from publicity
and training materials to guidelines explaining our new services
and initiatives.
Since
1996, our website http://www.info.gov.hk/epd
has provided easy and instant access for the public to a wealth
of information.
We also
operate two Environmental Resource Centres in Wanchai and
Tsuen Wan. These multi-media centres are open to the public
for easy access to environmental information. A new mobile
centre will come into operation in mid-2001.
We recognise
the important role the media plays in disseminating environmental
messages, so in 2000 we organised media visits to our waste
facilities and air quality monitoring laboratories to give
journalists a first-hand look at the EPD's work. We also handled
6,970 press enquiries, issued 264 press releases, organised
nine press conferences and briefings, and arranged 248 press
interviews.
Image
of EPD homepage
Chart of Visitors to EPD's
website: 1997 to 2000
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