Macau | Continued ‘cleanup work’ on green lungs in Coloane and Taipa, saplings to be planted in March – IAM

Macau (MNA) – Beginning around the middle of December of last year, excavation work began on all of the green walking trails in Coloane and Taipa, including the Ka Ho Trail and Taipa Hill Trail, causing great concern to environmentalists and nature lovers alike.

All the information that was available, as far as explaining what was happening in these green spaces, was a laminated piece of paper stating that ‘post-typhoon restoration works’ were ongoing.

Within a space of less than one month, hundreds and hundreds of trees were felled, with no apparent reasoning behind which ones were chosen to be cut down as part of the Municipal Affairs Bureau’s (IAM) “restoration works”.

Coloane Trail on Friday

“It’s normal to do some kind of cleaning up or rehabilitation of tree areas by the government, sometimes we have to clean out old trees. But the scale of this “clean-up” is a little bit frightening- that kind of destructive cutting down of trees and exposing of all the soil to the sunlight. And it happened in such a short time, without any public notification,” local environmentalist and president of the Macau Green Students Union, Joe Chan, told Macau News Agency (MNA) on Friday.

Walking along the Coloane Trail, Mr. Chan noted that nature has a process, and it takes time for plants and wildlife to recover, “if you have a patient with a lot of diseases, you treat the disease one by one so the patient has time to rest.”

When typhoon Hato struck Macau in August of 2017, more than 200 people were injured, and the storm left 10 dead; and an estimated 10,000 trees were damaged or uprooted throughout the city and in the green lungs of Coloane and Taipa.

A year later, typhoon Mangkhut made landfall and destroyed a few more trees; some that had been recovering from Hato, and others that had withstood the storm.

Area in Macau impacted by typhoon Hato in August 2017

With this environmental destruction having occurred, Mr. Chan stressed that he understands the government’s desire to carry out restoration work and that it is a normal process in environmental work, however, he does note that the work done on the Coloane and Taipa trails took place without public notification.

“The (government) should let people know what they are doing, if they are doing something good (for the environment) and it (is done) scientifically with all the research and all the experts supporting the team. They should let more people cooperate (on the project) and not do it alone or privately and secretly. The whole project should be revealed to the public because people have a right to know (what is going on),” the environmentalist said.

In response to enquiries from MNA, the IAM stated that ‘in the second half of 2018, ecological restoration work took place within 10 metres on both sides of the 12 main walking trails on the outlying islands, an estimated area of about 30 hectares’, and ‘in order to restore the ecological functions of the mountain forests in Macau, native broad-leaved tree species have been selected to be replanted’ in the relevant areas.

The Bureau also stated that the ‘expected number of trees or saplings to be planted is about 35,000, and planting will begin in March this year.’

Joe Chan on Coloane Trail

However, with the sheer extent of the tree removal that took place, Mr. Chan said “I think this is not a very scientific way to do this kind of rehabilitation [..] to do all of this on such a big scale and in such a short time, the native species and habitat for local wildlife is impacted […] with the soil dried up, there are no more good (nutrients) and bacteria to help things grow. It will take at least 10 years for anything to (grow well).”

The environmentalist also warned that the rainy season is just around the corner, and worries that IAM did not take this into consideration when it planned to plant saplings in March.

“This time the government went too far, they were thinking ‘save time, save money’, and not worry about the future. It’s sad to see this,” Mr. Chan said as he looked out at the mountain, in the space where trees used to grow.