Showing posts with label Lawrence and Horace Kadoorie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lawrence and Horace Kadoorie. Show all posts

Friday, January 30, 2015

People and Food Forest Lawrence and Horace Kadoorie in Honk Kong

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 289-365

Two brothers, Lawrence and Horace Kadoorie in 1951 took on an idea to redevelop a trashed and degraded mountainside on 148 hectares with the emphasis on helping people to help themselves through training, supply of agricultural inputs and interest-free loans.

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG)  formerly known as Kadoorie Experimental and Extension Farm ), or Kadoorie Farm  for short, was originally set up for aiding poor farmers in the New Territories in Hong Kong

 It had been completely re-vegetated into a food forest with numerous water falls, ponds, rare turtles, terraced gardens on steep slopes, a compost and biochar system, a waste-water treatment plant and wetlands and so much more. It is an amazing site that was built so far ahead of its time with an emphasis on teaching local people.

It later shifted its focus to promote biodiversity conservation in Hong Kong and south China, and greater environmental awareness. 

It is located near Pak Ngau Shek, encompassing Kwun Yum Shan in the central New Territories; 

The Farm was built in a valley with streams, woodlands and terraces in 1956 by the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association

Now it is managed to integrate nature conservation, including a rescue and rehabilitation programme for native animals, along with holistic education and practices in support of a transition to sustainable living.

Programmes run by KFBG's Education Department include tree planting, improving wildlife habitat, art and environment workshops, as well as outreach programmes for schools and the local community. 

Increasingly there is an emphasis on holistic education, encouraging visitors to explore their relationship with nature by artistic means, internal inquiry, mindfulness and compassion.

 Meanwhile through its Sustainable Living & Agriculture Department KFBG works to support community Transition by developing new and economically workable opportunities for all parties in the food system. KFBG is actively trying to reduce the ecological footprint of its own operations.

History

Sir Horace Kadoorie, received Order of British Empire ( lived from 28 September 1902 - 22 April 1995) was an industrialist, hotelier, and philanthropist. His father was Sir Elly Kadoorie, and his uncle, Sir Ellis Kadoorie. 
His family were originally Iraqi Jews from Baghdad who later migrated to Bombay (Mumbai), India in the mid-18th century. In 1913-14, he spent a year at Clifton College and was a member of Polacks House; a boarding house solely for Jewish boys at Clifton.


Kadoorie and his brother Sir Lawrence Kadoorie worked for Victor Sassoon during the 1920s and 1930s, and managed his famous Shanghai hotel. They also worked for there for their father, the famous industrialist Sir Elly Kadoorie.
Among Sir Horace's philanthropies was a school that became a haven for Jewish refugee children in Shanghai.

He and his brother also formed an agricultural aid organization that in the 1960s helped hundreds of thousands of peasants in rural areas near Hong Kong to become independent farmers.

Kadoorie and his brother, Lawrence, both received the Magsaysay Award for public service in 1962.

Links

http://www.geofflawton.com/fe/77209-re-greening-a-mountain
http://permaculturenews.org/2015/01/30/nursery-quality-to-tree-planting-success/
http://www.kfbg.org/kfb/introwithreport.xml?fid=169&sid=239&lang=en