Cheung Kong's project can enable fish farming practices to survive

We refer to the recent allegations concerning the proposed Fung Lok Wai development.

No action does not mean conservation. The ecological importance of Fung Lok Wai stems from traditional fish farming practices. During winter, fish farmers drained their ponds for harvesting - 'trash' fish that were left in the drained ponds formed an important food source for water birds on their yearly migratory journey between Arctic Russia and Australia.

However, these traditional aquacultural practices have mostly disappeared due to competition from China and fish ponds are increasingly being abandoned. Abandoned fish ponds atrophy, reducing the numbers of fish within them, resulting in a reduction in food supply to migratory water birds.

Resources in terms of money and manpower are needed to maintain fish ponds' function as a source of food supply to migratory water birds. As the government considers it inappropriate to use taxpayers' money to underwrite conservation projects, a conservation policy was promulgated by the government in 2004 to provide economic incentives to encourage the private sector to take the initiative. The Fung Lok Wai development is a sustainable solution for conserving the existing fish ponds and keeping the traditional aquacultural management practices alive:

95 per cent of the site is reserved for the wetland nature reserve;

In return, 5 per cent of the site, located outside the Ramsar Site, will be for residential development; and