Mai Po wetland reserve faces precarious future, departing manager warns

Hong Kong's top wetland reserve might disappear without strong management in the face of various threats to its survival, the reserve's outgoing manager says.

Lew Young, who has worked at the reserve for 17 years, said it was still under threat from exotic flora and fauna species, rising mudflat levels due to excessive sediment deposits, water pollution and neighbouring development.

'If the community does not take an active role to identify the problems facing the reserve, and find the right solutions, it might some day be gone,' Dr Young said, admitting there were questions about the ecological value of the reserve.

Dr Young said the Mai Po reserve's management plan had not been updated since 1997, despite new and continuing challenges.

He said WWF, the global conservation body entrusted by the government to help run the reserve, would soon conduct a study to work out a strategy to better protect the 1,000-hectare wetland and its buffer areas, mostly fishponds.

Fish farmers, green groups, officials and developers would be invited to join the study.

Dr Young said the role of developers could no longer be ignored because they owned the fishponds and were the ones who would draw up development plans.