This Spring term Island School students have been continuing to support the ecological landscape restoration project on South Lantau through our resident horticultural expert Paul Melsom, who helps support student practical learning on Wednesdays in Elements Urban Survival and the CAS Garden Gang Activity.
As part of the forest landscape restoration project students have been sowing a variety of native trees and a small native tree nursery area has been established with approximately 10 species in school which include some of the Oak (Fagaceae) family of trees, Woodland Elaeocarpus, and Reevesia. These native tree seedlings are crucially important for restoring a degraded hillside and enhancing the local biodiversity on Lantau Island, where the trees will be planted.
This project has been run by Paul for over 20 years and the project has included the planting of many thousands of native trees and other native flora over this time.
In addition to supporting students at Island School, Paul also helps support students at other ESF schools and works for Kadoorie farm and Botanical Gardens as a native flora and forest restoration landscaping expert. Students benefit from Pauls’ horticultural expertise and passion for conservation practice.
Around the world, with concerns for biodiversity loss and climate change, many career opportunities are opening up in the ecological restoration and related science fields. It is hoped that even more students should take on regular roles in supporting and learning from this project for safeguarding and enhancing Hong Kong's rich biodiversity as part of their Year 11 Team Project in Explorations or as part of their CAS programme in year 12 and 13. Additionally the project has supported the curriculum as an opportunity for students to collect authentic internal assessment data for ESS and the IB Extended Essay.
