Greenpeace in Hong Kong has said it was forced to hold its eco-tourism seminar online after a university cancelled the venue booking for the event, citing “urgent maintenance.”

Greenpeace was originally set to host a series of talks on the city’s eco-tourism policies in a Cheng Yu Tung Building lecture hall at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) on Sunday, according to the NGO’s social media announcement on Saturday.

However, one day before the event, Greenpeace received notice from CUHK that the venue needed urgent repairs and decided to move its talk online, the green group said.

In response to HKFP’s enquiry, CUHK said the cancellation was due to “urgent maintenance of the venue,” and that the seminar organiser, Greenpeace, had been informed of the arrangement.

“The university has learnt that the forum was held in an online format on Zoom… We apologise for any disruption caused to the event,” the CUHK communications office said in an email.

CUHK did not specify which repairs were in order or when they were carried out.

Local media outlet InMedia reported that the doors to the lecture hall were locked on Sunday morning, with a yellow foldable plastic sign saying “Caution Overhead Work Area” placed behind the outer doors. The lights in the lecture theatre were turned off that morning, according to the report.

The NGO told HKFP on Monday that it was a “great pity” that the forum had to go online, as it would have been the first opportunity for different stakeholders to gather and explore Hong Kong’s eco-tourism management.

‘Great pity’

Greenpeace confirmed to HKFP on Monday that it received notice from CUHK on Saturday that the lecture theatre could not be used due to urgent repairs.

The seminar was moved online after Greenpeace was unable to find another venue at CUHK for the event “due to time constraints,” the NGO said.

Speakers at the event included academics, industry representatives, and community representatives, such as Lam Chiu-ying, former chief of the Hong Kong Observatory and now chair of the Hong Kong Countryside Foundation; Ada Kong, programme director of Greenpeace East Asia; and Chan Kim-ching, researcher at Liber Research Community.

“It was a great pity that the forum was changed to an online format, as it was supposed to be the first opportunity for different stakeholders from academia, industry, and the community, as well as more than 360 registrants, to come together to rationally discuss and explore the future direction of Hong Kong’s eco-tourism development,” Greenpeace said in a statement.

See also: Gov’t resources must not fall into the hands of ‘non-patriots,’ Hong Kong environment chief says

Earlier this month, Greenpeace and Liber urged the government to set a clear framework for eco-tourism development after their joint report found that around 22.4 hectares of ecologically valuable land tapped for eco-tourism in South Lantau and the Northern Metropolis had been degraded.

They also discovered that existing eco-tourism arrangements may grant developers more flexibility to build private housing on ecologically sensitive land.

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