Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden’s forest restoration programme achieves world’s-first Premium-Tier Certification

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden’s long-running, scientifically informed forest restoration programme has been awarded Premium-Tier Certification by The Global Biodiversity Standard, the first site in the world to achieve this accolade.

For almost 30 years, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG) has managed the upper slopes of its site in Hong Kong’s New Territories expressly for the purpose of rehabilitating native biodiversity and revitalising ecological function. Hong Kong is thought to have lost its natural forest cover centuries ago. Where tall, diverse subtropical forests once stood, the landscape of the region has been converted into a mosaic of anthropogenic shrubland, grassland and low-diversity secondary forests, with the expansion of agriculture and plantation forestry, as well as ongoing hill fires and urban development, being the chief causes. These processes continue to degrade forests worldwide, driving biodiversity loss, soil erosion, climate change and the disruption of vital ecosystem services, the effects of which are becoming increasingly costly to offset and reverse. KFBG’s approach to land stewardship demonstrates the power of investing in nature-based solutions today for a more resilient future.

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