Co-founded and led by Natalie Chung (Gen.T 2021), V’Air is a Hong Kong social enterprise promoting local nature-based tourism and education. The group hopes to engage people in sustainability and conservation issues and believes that once you’re in nature, you may be compelled by its sheer beauty to do what you can to preserve it.

V’Air started when the founders saw how international aviation emissions—despite being a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions—were not explicitly mentioned in the 2015 Paris Agreement, in which countries agreed to keep global temperatures from rising 2°C from their pre-industrial levels. Chung and her co-founders started thinking about ways to build momentum for local tourism, steering tourists towards rediscovering natural resources and building in them a sense for nature conservation.

Visits to Hakka villages in the New Territories are a common eco-tourism destination for V’Air’s tours. “We have good connections with these villages,” says Chung. “Many have started rural tourism even before we partnered, the first trial tours dating back to 2016.” The sustainability leader says V’Air’s village tours evolved into a model where eco-tourists can engage directly with the villagers.

Spread across 148 hectares of land in the slopes of Tai Po Shan in northern Hong Kong, the Kadoorie Farms & Botanic Garden (KFBG) is the ideal place for a day trip to learn about sustainable agriculture. Visitors can bask in the area’s greenery and reconnect with nature in its theme gardens, vegetable terraces, animal and plant exhibits, walking trails and educational facilities. KFBG also organises community activities, nature-inspired workshops and family events, such as their upcoming Easter Treasure Hunt Nature Exploration 2024 happening March 30.

The best way to experience sustainable agriculture is of course by eating its products. The farm’s Eat Well Cafe—a branch of the Eat Well Canteen at the KFBG’s Green Hub in nearby Tai Po—provides just that by serving plant-based dishes with ingredients grown nearby. The Central Farmers’ Market, held every Sunday at the Star Ferry Central Pier and organised by KFBG, is also another way to experience fresh locally grown organic farm produce at a lower carbon footprint.

Built out of the old Tai Po police station as a hub to promote sustainable living by KFBG in 2010, the Green Hub serves as a possible model for how we can better reconnect modern life with the natural world. Just like the KFBG, the Green Hub hosts many activities and workshops promoting sustainability and encouraging participants to be more mindful about their consumption habits.

Its Eat Well Canteen serves plant-based dishes by adhering to sustainable eating principles such as sourcing fresh ingredients locally and seasonally (all of the herbs and some of the vegetables are grown in a Kitchen Garden next to the canteen), making its own sauces to minimise artificial additives, cooking lightly to save on energy, and being conscious about waste by composting in the garden.

The Green Hub’s Co-op Shop gathers produce from the Kitchen Garden and other local small enterprises, as well as fair trade products and items from local artists. Visitors can also book a stay at the Green Hub’s guesthouse (the former police living quarters), built using a climate-friendly architectural design to maximise natural ventilation.

Every year, 60,000 birds from more than 400 species take shelter in Mai Po and the Inner Deep Bay area at the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Many others, such as otters, moths and reptiles, inhabit this wetland. The area was eventually made into the Mai Po Nature Reserve and has been managed by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Hong Kong since 1983, attracting scientists, birdwatchers and eco-tourists locally and from around the world.

The WWF runs eco-tours for the public and schools there but also conducts research on how to best preserve the habitat for migratory and local wildlife and trains conservationists around Asia on nature reserve management. Eco-tourism trips available usually require advance booking and can include walks across the wetlands or seasonal activities, such as migratory birdwatching, Gei Wai shrimping, or night safaris.

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