The annual Green Minions Volunteer Training Programme was launched on 20th July. Although we had a few showers on the day, we managed to visit Country Park Plantation Enrichment Project at Lung Mun Country Trail leaded by The Conservancy Association.
At the beginning of the new cohort, we invited participants from previous cohorts to share their thoughts and experience over the years.
Sharing from the “Green Minions” from previous cohorts
Yoko, Green Minion 2018
I like nature and always spend time in the mountains but know little about protection and conservation of the countryside, until I joined the Green Minions in 2018. One of the most memorable experiences was the survey of rubbish along the trails. Before the survey most of us thought plastic bottle, banana peel and tissue paper would be most found rubbish in the mountain. To our surprise, It was candy wrappings that we found most in the survey. The wrapping are too tiny to notice when people dropped them. After this session, I started picking up the used plastic water bottles and other rubbish in the mountain while hiking, and always remind myself to ‘leave no trace’.
Plastic pollution became a serious threat to planet Earth, especially to our oceans. I witnessed uncountable trash during coastal cleanup, at the end of the cleanup we can only clean up only a small area of the beach. Most of the trash were plastic wastes which poses a great threat to marine life. Human beings have caused great damage to our environment but it is not too late to take serious steps to save our planet, we can start by reducing the consumption of disposable plastic items.
Before joining the Green Minions, most of the environmental education activities that I have come across were mainly on ecological conservation. I enrolled in the programme without hesitation back in 2017 because it included the hot topics of the year including marine debris, brownfields and agricultural issues. The training provided me with different perspectives on environmental conservation.
The contents of the training is very diverse and practical. We learned how to planned and tracked the routes of our excursions using the TrailWatch app; visited Wang Chau and had the opportunity to discuss with villagers on the impact of the development of brownfields to them; as well as learn to check and monitor land changes overtime using Google Earth.
Although the Programme is organised by TrailWatch, many other environmental NGOs were invited to share their experience and expertise. It is great to see collaboration like this in this competitive society. TrailWatch and the NGOs show us their passions in environmental education and conservation and I truly appreciated the effort of every single one of them.
Ambrose Poon, Green Minions 2016
(Excerpts from the reflection, click here for the full version in Chinese)
Activities Record: https://www.trailwatch.hk/?t=dashboard2&uid=12112
I joined the training program by chance in 2016 and I am glad to be a Green Minion. Documentaries about ecology are always my favourite since I was young; naturally, I am most interested in the session about local biodiversity. After an introduction about different species and habitats, we were led by herpetologists for a night visit in the nature which truly amazed me. It is sad to learn that a lot of our countrysides are being destroyed and facing threats in various ways. Many speakers were invited to speak on different topics which often include a site visit Through the site visits, we understand that our relationship and connectedness with nature and the importance of a sustainable future.
I developed a sense of mission after joining the programme which push me to continue to protect our nature and ecology. I am now more aware of environmental issues and actively participate in conservation activities. As my connection and sense of belongingness with the countryside grew, my family and friends are also being influenced and become more interested in environmental issues. I wish more people will join us to work towards a sustainable society.
The programme has commenced but the training sessions with extra seats will be opened for application to other TrailWatch users (please note that the sessions will be conducted in Cantonese). Besides, a series of country park-related activities will soon be organised by TrailWatch, stay tuned to our Facebook page for the latest information.