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local community will bring in negative impacts on the environment. If yes, what kind of land policy should be designed for the compensation, otherwise, for the indigenous people coming from some remote areas, small-house policy will not be more than a concept for the indigenous people? If not, we might want to pay attentions to successful examples in other countries and to learn the know-how in operation. As we would suggest that, interaction with local inhabitants is a crucial aspect and an important element in subsequent government land policy both for development and environment conservation. Without denying the importance of environmental conservation, I would suggest nonetheless that the viewpoint given by local indigenous people should not be overlooked and their participation of heritage preservation has to be considered. Especially in the setting of this small area of Hong Kong, many potential development sites consist of land owned by or inhabited by villages of indigenous people.
One cannot simply conserve the environment and use it as a development site regardless of the needs of the people living there. According to the pioneering example of ecotourism in the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) in Nepal, it is mentioned that previous protected area designation was characterized by Gurung and De Coursey that, without adequate understanding, such areas were declared National Parks with the sole intention of protecting the wildlife and forest while forgetting the needs of the people. Certainly this approach achieved one set of goals, the protection of flora and fauna, but it also created unforeseen socio-economic problems.10 ACAP is different, most importantly, it is significant that local villagers do not only participate but also are in charge in the ACAP. In other words, the local community is part of the management process and makes decisions together with project officials. ACAP has several characteristics such as working with NGOs, aiming at self-supporting financing through the collection of user fees, and taking a bottom-up approach to revive conservation in which 'local people are actively encouraged to take a leading role in conservation and development activities, expressing their needs and concerns in open forums.' As the welfare of indigenous people is one of the major themes in nature-related tourism as well as ecotourism, together with the fact that cultural heritage is an important element of in tourism development, the traditions and heritage of the indigenous people should be a substantial dimension in land use and heritage preservation,