In a small, open shop on Lamma Island sits shelves of homemade coffee pods, flour bags turned into shopping bags, used papers with beautiful bird drawings and other friendly-looking products. A man, tanned with short hair and in a black T-shirt, worked at the computer.
The owner, Hong Konger Stanley Chan, was as a graphic designer for more than 20 years. Now he is the conservation manager of Eco-Education & Resources Centre, an environmental protection company. Bird watcher, nature poet Chan recycles and sells green products, and connects volunteers with environmental protection activities on Lamma Island.
Ten years ago, Chan was laid off and left HSBC. Without a second to feel depressed, he got a phone call from the boss of ERC, “Stanley, you can come to help us!”
In fact, while working in HSBC, Chan did a lot of spare-time things for various environmental issues in Hong Kong, including organizing ecology show, doing bird watching, taking ecology photos, as well as participating volunteering activities of ERC. “You find I’m suitable for this job, then that’s fine for me,” Chan said to the boss of ERC.
Considering the distance from office in Central to Lamma island, Chan got a permission to open a “Green” store in Lamma Island, which could be a channel to promote ecology situation in this area and deliver environmental message to the public, the tourists, as well as local Hong Kong people.
When talking about the revenue of the shop, “At least we can survive,” said Chan. “It's ok because when customers come and say this is interesting, and ask me questions about ecology and environment issues in Hong Kong, we can share the information.”
As we were talking, Sheli Bowman, the officer for Garden Gathering, an environmental activity in Cheung Chau, Hong Kong, came in and checked information with Chan about the coconut water recycling materials. Bowman lived in Lamma Island for 24 years and has been cooperating with Chan since 15 years ago.
“He did amazing things," said Bowman. She and Chan made efforts on dealing with guano in the island, and Chan mostly did everything for the Chinese community. "We do different things, but same purpose,” said Bowman.
To connect the shop with more people like Sheli, Chan try to support more locals. “Sometimes we go to art festival to find young artists,” said Chan, “then we may provide a channel for them to sell their products.” However, as Chan troubled, finding the right artists is also a big challenge.
The strong love to nature also motivates Chan to write poems. According to Dan Koeppel’s book To See Every Bird on Earth, there are about 10,000 species of bird and only a small number of people have seen more than 7000. Being a bird watcher for more than 30 years, Chan have written many poems about birds. “I start to write poems in my teenage years, and never stop,” said Chan. “I love birds, nature and writing, by which I can express my feeling about how to love it.”
He has already published several collections of poems in local papers like Mingpao. The first one is about Hong Kong birdwatcher, and the second one is about hiking. “Many people think that Hong Kong is just a kind of economic city,” said Chan. “I'm from Hong Kong and I love all the species on the land. I hope people could know more about the city.”
About love poems, Chan grinned and said, “If you read poems, you will see most poems are about love. My writings are about nature, hiking, animals, etc. but they are all to my wife.”
An environmentalist, a shop owner, as well as a poet, it seems that 24 hours per day is still not enough for Chan to get balanced. However, he loud his voice with a pride smile, “I don't need to balance because they are all together in my life. I don't set a lot of goals for myself. I enjoy it every day.”
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