Hong Kong’s incense trees get chunks carved out by illegal loggers, turtle poachers on the prowl as borders reopen
- Residents on Lamma and Lantau report intruders chopping down valuable old trees in dead of night
- ‘Worrying signs’ of poachers at work, as population of turtles shrinks by 90 per cent at some sites
Damon Wong woke up one morning in February to find that part of an old incense tree near his home on Hong Kong’s Lamma Island had been chopped off.
Neighbours said they had heard people using machines to saw wood during the night.
A few days later, more of the tree was gone.
“We all know what happened to it,” said Wong, 38, a former resident representative at his village.
Illegal logging of valuable incense trees had resumed after a three-year break during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Early last month, Hong Kong police arrested 12 people from mainland China for illegal logging of at least 13 incense trees worth an estimated HK$2.3 million (US$292,990) on Lamma Island.
Eight were charged with conspiracy to steal, with the force saying it would communicate with mainland authorities to trace where stolen wood ended up.
Wood from the incense tree, Aquilaria sinensis, has a distinct fragrance and is prized for carvings. The price ranges from HK$60,000 to HK$200,000 per kg, police said.
The incense trees on Lamma Island include some that are 10 metres (33 feet) tall and believed to be hundreds of years old. The tree grows at the rate of only one metre every 10 years in the wild and is considered vulnerable.
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The lifting of all pandemic travel restrictions in February had allowed the return of illegal logging and poaching of wildlife in Hong Kong, academics and conservationists told the Post.
The city is regarded as a likely last refuge for some rare animals no longer sustainable in mainland China and Southeast Asia, including the critically endangered golden coin turtle and big-headed turtle and the endangered Beale’s eyed turtle.
Zoologist Sung Yik-hei, an assistant professor at Lingnan University who studies turtles, said that as soon as the border reopened, he spotted a group of poachers catching turtles in streams near the border. They had not been seen during the pandemic, he noted.
Turtle counts at some of his study sites in the New Territories had fallen by 90 per cent since February, and he could find only one in two areas which had about a dozen last year.
“The situation is very worrying. Poachers from mainland China catch turtles more professionally and intensively,” he said. “Such animals are popular on the mainland, where many have been hunted to extinction.”
The turtles are hunted as pets and food, as some on the mainland eat the meat believing it improves longevity.
A check by the Post found that a wild golden coin turtle was priced at about 150,000 Chinese yuan (HK$171,360), with viable males able to fetch more than 380,000 yuan.
Sung said infrared camera traps set up by his research team detected the same group of poachers several times over five nights at multiple districts in the New Territories between February 18 and March 9.
The camera footage showed they had prepared cage traps, nets and headlamps for nighttime operations.
“Not only were they hunting turtles, but also mammals like porcupines, civet cats and pangolins,” Sung said.
His team lost two cameras in February, and two others were damaged this month with their antennae cut off. Nothing like this happened during the pandemic, he said.
The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said it arrested seven people for hunting wild animals last year, up from two in 2018. One person was arrested this year.
Since 2018, it arrested only one person for the illegal felling of incense trees, in 2020.
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‘The masterminds get away’
Incense trees are also found on Lantau Island, and residents there have also reported recent incidents of illegal logging.
Waitress Alice Cheung, 45, who lives in Chi Ma Wan in southern Lantau, said she heard several people chatting and chopping timber with axes in the wooded foothills behind her home on March 18 morning.
“When I yelled to ask who was there, the chatter and chopping sounds stopped,” she said. “I went to take a look and saw fresh wounds on at least five trees. I didn’t know there were so many incense trees near my place.”
Hong Kong has a group dedicated to protecting the incense trees, and it is concerned about the return of illegal logging.
The Association for the Ecological and Cultural Conservation of Aquilaria Sinensis recorded fewer than 10 incidents of incense tree logging each year during the pandemic, down from about 300 cases between 2017 and 2019.
Executive director Ho Pui-han said Hongkongers were believed to be involved in incense wood businesses on the mainland.
“They usually won’t get their hands dirty and chop the trees themselves,” she said. “The survival of trees deep in the wild is grimmer, unlike those growing near villages that are monitored by residents.”
Ho said Hong Kong authorities had to communicate with their mainland counterparts to go after the masterminds of the illegal activities.
“For years, we can only catch the rank and file,” she said.
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Under Hong Kong’s Wild Animals Protection Ordinance, those who hunt or wilfully disturb any protected wild animal face a maximum fine of HK$100,000 and up to a year in jail.
Poaching and illegal logging culprits are usually charged with theft, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ jail.
A document submitted to the Legislative Council on April 12 revealed that the department had trimmed its budget for a programme aimed at conserving the city’s biodiversity from HK$40.1 million to HK$32.6 million and decreased the headcount of rangers patrolling country parks from 29 to 26.
The department told the Post it spared no effort in combating illegal hunting activities, adding it conducted market inspections and collected intelligence on online trading platforms to monitor suspected illegal trade.
Police said the force did not have statistics on illegal poaching and logging crimes, but it helped or conducted joint operations with the department upon request.
