This summer, from 2nd to 21st August 2016, KFBG hosted a Nature and Culture exhibition themed ‘Fantastic Forests - Embracing the Vitality of Trees’, in which the pivotal importance of trees in our daily lives - and the cultural representations of trees in different countries - took centre stage. The 19-day exhibition was held at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, Shek Kip Mei and attracted 10,942 visitors, many of whom were families and students.

The Tree Installation at the entrance of the exhibition venue

Our intern students provided valuable support throughout the exhibition in numerous ways, not least of which was through the guided tours designed to convey the message of conservation by informing visitors of the myriad biological facts and threats faced by our forests. As a measure of the receptiveness of the public, it’s heartening to report that some 58 guided tours were conducted in total.

Children having fun at the Tree Playground

One installation created by a visitor at the "Nature Installation" activity

The ‘Tree Playground’ was a wow with children who had hours of fun playing in the wooden tunnel and on the bridge like mini explorers! Meanwhile, Nature Installation was another popular experiential activity, in which participants harnessed their creativity to construct an installation of natural materials comprising leaves, flowers, seeds and twigs. Hong Kong wood artist Joe Li taught participants simple wood carving skills, while in the wood workshop participants helped prepare materials by using logs and tree trunks collected at KFBG for our future educational programmes.  

Participants of Wood Workshop practicing wood carving skills

In modern life we tend to take trees for granted - but without them we and more than half of the biological species on the planet would no longer exist. We thus hope that this exhibition can arouse the awareness of all to our awesome responsibility to protect and nurture this amazing life-form, for truly: ‘A seed today is a forest tomorrow’.

Biochar display at the exhibition to introduce the benefits of using biochar in restoring the forests

Visitors were invited to leave their fingerprints on the "Promise Print Tree Ring". They promised to start a Go Green habit in the future six months such as using handkerchiefs instead of tissues or going vegetarian — at least for one day a week in order to protect trees.

Let’s fully engage in environmental protection today - to treasure and protect our beautiful planet!