保護區制度：自然保育創造可持續宜居城市

香港是全球城市化發展程度和人口密度最高的地方之一，700萬人口擠在面積僅有1104 平方公里的細小土地上。 這似乎並非可供城市化、自然保育和戶外康樂等對立目標及需求並存的適合之地。可發展的土地嚴重短缺，加上城市擴展和城市化加劇而致的壓力，均有礙把太多土地分配於自然保育用途。然而，保護區覆蓋了40% 陸地範圍及境內海域的重要部分，縱使建成區內只存在極少大自然元素，其四周卻被鄉村用地之外的郊野環境圍繞。
除了保護動植物資源及其生境之外，保護區亦滿足了廣大市區人口的康樂和教育需要；至於該制度可怎樣及能否實現這些多重目標，實在必須審慎檢視。讓這難以置信的事情變成現實，是一系列自然及人為因素聚合的結果，其中特別關乎市民和公務員的視野和決心。本文嘗試追溯香港保護區制度的發展、變化和表現，並評估某些帶來成功的要素︰促成郊野公園制度出現的自然和文化先驅因素、法規基礎及目標、結構和空間形態，以及人類造成的影響。
Hong Kong has one of the highest urban development and population densities in the world, with seven million people compressed into a tiny land area of merely 1 104 km². It does not seem to be a suitable candidate for the co-existence of the apparently contradictory goals and demands of urbanization, nature conservation and outdoor recreation. The grave shortage of easily developable land and the relentless pressure of urban expansion and intensification could militate against the assignment of so much land primarily for nature conservation. Yet the protected area system covers 40% of the land area and important portions of the territorial seas. Whereas there is little of nature in the built-up areas, it abounds in the countryside outside the village lands.
Besides protecting our flora and fauna resources and their habitats, the protected areas serve the heavy recreational and educational demands of the large urbanized population. How and whether the system can fulfil these multiple objectives calls for critical scrutiny. It was a confluence of a series of both natural and human factors, especially the vision and determination of some citizens and civil servants, that permitted the rather implausible to become reality. This paper attempts to trace the development, vicissitudes and performance of the protected area system in Hong Kong. Some key elements of the successful institution are evaluated: natural and cultural precursors leading to the establishment of the country park system, statutory bedrock and objectives, organization and spatial patterns, and human impacts. Copyright © 2010 郊野公園之友會：天地圖書有限公司.