Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 00:25:50 +0800 From: "Gilles LARDY" <ganymedes@ibm.net> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg161$foo@default> Subject: N. mirabilis vs. Mickey Mouse
Hi everybody,
here is some piece of news from Hongkong and more precisely Lantau Island
where I live, where you may know Disney has planned to build its next
Disneyland park.
This is an excerpt from the South-China Morning post dated 17th Jan
available online in full version at
http://www.scmp.com/News/HongKong/Article/FullText_asp_ArticleID-20000117012
400414.asp
>####Endangered plants found at Disney site###
> Groups of an endangered carnivorous plant may be moved to avoid being
wiped out by >Disneyland and related projects.
>Nepenthes, or pitcher plants, were yesterday examined at Penny's Bay,
Lantau by Friends >of the Earth.
>
>The plants were discovered on a hillside behind a shipyard which will be
scrapped to make >way for a water recreation centre, roads and railways
adjacent to Disneyland.
>
>Pitcher plants, listed as endangered and protected worldwide, have been
moved once >before - for the construction of Chek Lap Kok.
>
>Found in tropical and subtropical regions, they supplement their nutrition
by catching and >consuming insects or even frogs in bigger species.
>
>The plant is shaped like a lidded pitcher. Nectar is secreted on the lips
of the pitcher to >attract insects, which slide down the slippery surface
and are drowned and digested in the >fluid at the bottom of the plant. Only
one species has been found in Hong Kong - >Nepenthes mirabilis, which are
mostly knee-high and eat insects such as ants and flies. >Officials
conducting environmental impact assessments on the Disney and Northshore
>Lantau development projects will be required to study ways to protect or
relocate any >endangered plants found within the site.
>
>Assistant Director of Friends of the Earth, Plato Yip Kwong-to, said: "Any
relocation >work to be done will have to cover the entire habitat of the
plant. The Disney joint venture >company should pay for the relocation
cost."
>
>He also urged the Government to renew its investigation into the plant's
distribution in Hong >Kong.
>
>The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said a study on
pitcher plants a >few years ago found them distributed widely on Lantau and
in Tai Lam and Castle Peak in >the northwest New Territories.
>
>The department's senior endangered species protection officer, Lay
Chik-chuen, said some >pitcher plants threatened by the airport had been
moved to other parts of north Lantau.
>
>Despite rapid urbanisation, Mr Lay believed the plants were in no danger of
extinction in >Hong Kong.
It is a shame the HK authorities do not show the same zeal in protecting the
habitats of other less mediatic although much rarer species such as D.
indica and D. oblanceolata, and stop illegal collection an open reselling of
the local orchid species....
Gilles in HK
www.byblis.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:35:05 PST