Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden - Programmes

Programmes

Programmes run by KFBG's Education Department include tree planting, improving wildlife habitat, art and environment workshops, as well as outreach programmes for schools and the local community. Increasingly there is an emphasis on holistic education, encouraging visitors to explore their relationship with nature by artistic means, internal inquiry, mindfulness and compassion. Meanwhile through its Sustainable Living & Agriculture Department KFBG works to support community Transition by developing new and economically workable opportunities for all parties in the food system. KFBG is actively trying to reduce the ecological footprint of its own operations.

KFBG has a range of biodiversity conservation programmes. Its Ecological Advisory Programme, launched in 1998, advises government, environmental NGOs, villagers, ecological consultants, academics and private developers, seeking to influence policy and practice in support of conservation. The Fauna and Flora Conservation Departments contribute through wildlife rescue work, ex-situ breeding and propagation programmes, and educational projects. KFBG seeks to integrate its multiple management objectives, for biodiversity, ecosystem services and holistic education, on its own 150-hectare estate.

Conservation work has been extended to Mainland China since 1998. Following some pilot surveys in Guangdong and Guangxi in 1997, the KFBG China Programme launched a series of collaborative rapid biodiversity assessments in the nature reserves of Hainan, Guangxi and Guangdong, leading to a series of reports highlighting the distribution, status and threats of the region's wildlife, focusing on vertebrates, plants, dragonflies, ants and some other groups. At the same time the Programme provided a communication platform among those involved in forest conservation in South China through its Living Forests magazine and website. Since 2000 the Programme's attention has gradually shifted to helping protected-areas authorities and communities with the conservation of key sites and species, especially in Hainan and Guangxi. A particular focus has been the great tropical forest of Yinggeling, central Hainan, which is now a provincial Nature Reserve. Since 2003 KFBG has been involved with conserving the Hainan Gibbon Nomascus hainanus, thought to be the rarest ape in the world, at its last refuge at Bawangling National Nature Reserve. In 2011 the KFBG China Programme was renamed Kadoorie Conservation China.