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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
supporting and financing the Society. This year, we are estimating that about 75% of our total income will come from the Council and the Government: less than 10% will come from the business and commercial sectors of our community. In an age when we are all paying much more attention to the quality of our lives, we hope that the Hong Kong community will recognize the role played by the Hong Kong Philharmonic in this respect, and accordingly support the orchestra financially at a more significant level.
Conservation
The other subject I would like to speak on is Conservation, and it is in the broad sense of conservation of nature and natural resources. Many people accuse conservationists of trying to save animals and plants at the expense of people, or having their priorities mixed up. These people are wrong because the ultimate benefactors of a successful worldwide conservation effort, and who have the intelligence to appreciate it, are we, the human race.
Well, as a start, the human species is part of the Animal Kingdom. Like all living things, we must have a suitable environment in order to survive. We also know, with abundant proof around us, that the environment is being rapidly degraded, the ecological balance seriously disturbed. Some may shrug this off and say, 'Science will find a way to solve things...' But if that's the case, Science had better move pretty fast, because even our most brilliant scientists have to work with elements already available. And we are losing some of those most important elements at an alarming rate.
In the past 2000 years we have lost 250 major animal species and several hundred plant species that we know of. Today we face the prospect of losing another 1000 animals and an estimated 25,000 plants within the next 20 years. Extinction is forever, and Science has not found a way to create even the simplest plant seed, let alone a simple animal.
Among the threatened species are some known to have value to mankind culturally, economically, as medicines, or as food—and perhaps thousands which would yield value if they could be kept around long enough to study. Out of some thousands of potential grain and vegetable varieties, only a handful are used for domestic food production. This would not matter to human survival except that we now know domesticated strains become weaker as time goes on, in yields, nutritional quality, durability, pest and disease resistance—even flavour.
How to give renewed vigour to our vital, domestic plant foods? Cross them with near-relatives from the wild species. But that can only be done if the wild species exist.
As for the endangered species of animals, there are many schools of thought about why they should be saved, starting with what we could call 'Moral or ethical reasons'—they are as much a part of our heritage as cultural elements which we have a responsibility to try and save for future generations, such as language, literature and art. They are disappearing now, not because of 'natural selection' but because of the impact of a single species—the human species—on the earth's entire environment.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Moreover—and more important to some experts—there are practical grounds for keeping rare animals around, grounds related directly to the future survival of the human species. All animals and plants are parts of an ecological web which binds all living things together with climate, soil and water to form life on earth. With each part of the 'gene pool' we lose, we lose permanent potential help from that diverse pool, help humankind may need in the future, in response to stresses concerning food and medicines and scientific knowledge.
Who cares about Pangolins and Armadillos? Some 50,000 humans, at least. That is the number of people around the world with leprosy. Two years ago the first ever vaccine for the disease was discovered. The vaccine can only be made from pangolins and armadillos. Chances are, if the animals had already disappeared (and they are considered 'threatened' though not yet endangered), a vaccine would have taken much longer to find, if ever found at all. These animals, for biological reasons humans do not yet understand, breed only in the wild.
Who cares about a small wild plant called, I think, Rosy Periwinkle? Everyone with Hodgkin's Disease, and with some forms of Leukaemia. The plant was found fairly recently to be a vital catalyst in a medicine for these diseases. The plant is not considered endangered, but it is rare, and it grows in the wild. This plant has been studied, finally, recently. What about the 25,000 wild plants in danger of disappearing within the next few years?
These problems which may sound remote to many people are so serious that over 400 international scientists and technical experts from every discipline in the conservation field were brought together by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (I.U.C.N.), under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (U.N.E.P.) and the World Wildlife Fund (W.W.F.), to produce the most comprehensive document on conservation to date—the World Conservation Strategy. This document informs us that it is time to come to terms with the reality of resource limitation and the sustaining capacities of the ecosystem. The needs of the future must be taken into account. Development and conservation are partners, for the object of development is to provide for social and economic welfare, and the object of conservation is to ensure the Earth's capacity to sustain development and to support all life.
In Hong Kong more than most places, we understand the pressures—the escalating needs of soaring numbers of people which can drive us to a short-sighted approach if we let it. But the results of this approach have become
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Page 114 of 146
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185
184
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
supporting and financing the Society. This year, we are estimating that about 75% of our total income will come from the Council and the Government: less than 10% will come from the business and commercial sectors of our community. In an age when we are all paying much more attention to the quality of our lives, we hope that the Hong Kong community will recognize the role played by the Hong Kong Philharmonic in this respect, and accordingly support the orchestra financially at a more significant level.
Conservation
The other subject I would like to speak on is Conservation, and it is in the broad sense of conservation of nature and natural resources. Many people accuse conservationists of trying to save animals and plants at the expense of people, or having their priorities mixed up. These people are wrong because the ultimate benefactors of a successful worldwide conservation effort, and who have the intelligence to appreciate it, are we, the human race.
Well, as a start, the human species is part of the Animal Kingdom. Like all living things, we must have a suitable environment in order to survive. We also know, with abundant proof around us, that the environment is being rapidly degraded, the ecological balance seriously disturbed. Some may shrug this off and say, 'Science will find a way to solve things ... But if that's the case, Science had better move pretty fast, because even our most brilliant scientists have to work with elements already available. And we are losing some of those most important elements at an alarming rate.
In the past 2000 years we have lost 250 major animal species and several hundred plant species that we know of. Today we face the prospect of losing another 1000 animals and an estimated 25 000 plants within the next 20 years. Extinction is forever, and Science has not found a way to create even the simplest plant seed, let alone a simple animal.
Among the threatened species are some known to have value to mankind culturally, economically, as medicines, or as food-and perhaps thousands which would yield value if they could be kept around long enough to study. Out of some thousands of potential grain and vegetable varieties, only a handful are used for demestic food production. This would not matter to human survival except that we now know domesticated strains become weaker as time goes on, in yields, nutritional quality, durability, pest and disease resistance-even flavour.
How to give renewed vigour to our vital, domestic plant foods? Cross them with near-relatives from the wild species. But that can only be done if the wild species exist.
As for the endangered species of animals, there are many schools of thought about why they should be saved, starting with what we could call 'Moral or ethical reasons'-they are as much a part of our heritage as cultural elements
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
which we have a responsibility to try and save for future generations, such as language, literature and art. They are disappearing now, not because of 'natural selection' but because of the impact of a single species the human species on the earth's entire environment.
Moreover-and more important to some experts there are practical grounds for keeping rare animals around, grounds related directly to the future survival of the human species. All animals and plants are parts of an ecological web which binds all living things together with climate, soil and water to form life on earth. With each part of the 'gene pool' we lose, we lose permanent potential help from that diverse pool, help humankind may need in the future, in response to stresses concerning food and medicines and scientific knowledge.
Who cares about Pangolins and Armadillos? Some 50 000 humans, at least. That is the number of people around the world with leprosy. Two years ago the first ever vaccine for the disease was discovered. The vaccine can only be made from pangolins and armadillos. Chances are, if the animals and already disappeared (and they are considered 'threatened' though not yet endangered), a vaccine would have taken much longer to find, if ever found at all. These animals, for biological reasons humans do not yet understand, breed only in the wild.
Who cares about a small wild plant called, I think, Rosy Periwinkle? Everyone with Hodgkins Disease, and with some forms of Leukaemia. The plant was found fairly recently to be a vital catalyst in a medicine for these diseases. The plant is not considered endangered, but it is rare, and it grows in the wild. This plant has been studied, finally, recently. What about the 25 000 wild plants in danger of disappearing within the next few years?
These problems which may sound remote to many people are so serious that over 400 international scientists and technical experts from every discipline in the conservation field were brought together by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (I.U.C.N.), under the auspices of the United Nation Environment Programme (U.N.E.P.) and the World Wildlife Fund (W.W.F.), to produce the most comprehensive document on conservation to date---the World Conservation Strategy. This document informs us that it is time to come to terms with the reality of resource limitation and the sustaining capacities of the ecosystem. The needs of the future must be taken into account. Development and conservation are partners, for the object of development is to provide for social and economical welfare, and the object of conservation is to ensure the Earth's capacity to sustain development and to support all life.
In Hong Kong more than most places, we understand the pressures-the excalating needs of soaring numbers of people which can drive us to a short- sighted approach if we let it. But the results of this approach have become
Page 114 of 140
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