Given Hong Kong's unremitting development pressures, both pro-development and pro-conservation groups are now calling for ways to evaluate sites for development based on environmental metrics and new conservation agreements. However, for the built-environment disciplines in Hong Kong, sustainability discourse is predominantly aligned with economic and urban sustainability, rather than the new forms of conservation that contend to use environmental modelling to justify the conversion of conservation uses. There are compounding reasons for this, including, at the very least, Hong Kong's uniquely dense and contradictory urban and rural landscapes, with characteristics of customary or indigenous rights, largely artificial yet ecologically rich habitats, and hybrid and ad hoc colonial planning legacies that result in unique forms of environmental governance. At the end of 2016, Hong Kong detailed its commitments to the Convention on Biological Diversity through its Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, a document that is largely descriptive of ongoing efforts with little effective action. For urban and landscape resilience, we must ensure the critical and innovative deployment of conservation and impact assessment instruments and tools, including the analytical measure of biodiversity, vulnerability, and ecosystem services, while fully aware of the territory's increasing politics of sustainability.
- Course: Environmental Futures Studio: Design, nature and the erosion of conservation in Hong Kong
Instructor: Ashley Scott Kelly. Postgraduate 2018-19. - Speaker: Kelly, A. S. (2018). Sustainable Development and the Erosion of Conservation in Hong Kong. Talk delivered to CED Talk: Pacific Rim-Urban Resilience by Design. University of California Berkeley College of Environmental Design, Berkeley, California.
- Speaker: Kelly, A. S. (2018). HKILA Land Supply Forum: Evaluating Land & Land Supply Strategies in Hong Kong. Hosted by the Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects, Hong Kong.
- Event: Kelly, A. S. (2017). Landscape Planning Game: Land Development vs Conservation Hong Kong. Game created for Storefront International Series (IS), Storefront for Art and Architecture (New York) and Hong Kong Design Trust.
- Speaker: Kelly, A. S. (2017). Land Development and Conservation in Hong Kong: Questions we could be asking. Delivered opening remarks to 2017 Annual Land Forum: Land Challenges Amid New Administration. Hosted by The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Architecture, Designing Hong Kong, Land Watch, and the Professional Commons. Hong Kong.
- Report: Chan, K., Poon, S., Edwards, G., Lau, M. (authors). Kelly, A. S. (advisor). (2016). Prioritising Brownfield Development, Safeguarding Our Green Spaces (Report). Hong Kong: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Hong Kong.
- Event: Hosted and Co-organized Land Development and Conservation in Hong Kong – Roundtable and Workshop. (2016). University of Hong Kong. Co-organized with Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) Hong Kong, Designing Hong Kong, Liber Research Community, Professional Commons, Land Watch, and Save Our Country Parks.
