Can Disparate Shared Social Values Benefit the Conservation of Biodiversity in Hong Kong’s Sacred Groves?

• Published in: Human ecology : an interdisciplinary journal Vol. 51; no. 5; pp. 1021 - 1032
• Main Authors: Lee, Kit Wah Kit, Cheuk, Mang Lung, Fischer, Gunter A., Gale, Stephan W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.10.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Age groups; Anthropology; Biodiversity; Community involvement; Conservation; Ecological succession; Environmental Management; Exploitation; Flora; Forest protection; Geography; Government policy; Habitat fragmentation; Plants (botany); Public policy; Residents; Rural communities; Sacredness; Social Sciences; Social values; Social-ecological systems; Sociology; Species richness; Villages; Wildlife conservation; Woodlands; Hong Kong China; China; Statutory protection; Hong Kong; woodland; South China; Attitudes; Connectedness with nature; Social-ecological system; Rare plants
• ISSN: 0300-7839; 1572-9915
• DOI: 10.1007/s10745-023-00443-8

As socio-ecological systems of high conservation value, sacred groves are subject to intense competing interests worldwide. Hong Kong’s fung shui woodlands (FSW) are an ancient form of sacred grove derived from old-growth forest fragments protected for geomantic beliefs relating to their proximity to traditional villages and subsequently modified through planting, exploitation, and natural succession. Today, they contain approximately 30% of the territory’s native flora and are the only remaining localities for many rare plants, but inconsistent government policy and declining community involvement have led to mismatched expectations whereby biodiversity suffers by default. To identify common ground for better management, we interviewed residents of nine villages to quantify self-stated degree of connectedness and the relative importance of five shared social values in relation to the FSW at each location. One-third of respondents claimed no knowledge of the FSW in their village and more than two-thirds had never even visited it, but most expressed positive attachment particularly with respect to perceived health/social and historical/cultural value. Connectedness was a strong predictor of importance attributed to all values and was correlated with gender, education level, and protected status: women were significantly less connected with FSW than men, more educated respondents exhibited greater FSW connectedness, and residents at protected sites expressed greater connectedness than those at unprotected ones. Importance varied significantly with indigeneity and age group, but not species richness or conservation value. We infer that biodiversity could benefit from nuanced policy that promotes connectedness through emphasis of wider societal values.