Hong Kong officials urged to conduct ecological study on Deep Bay wetlands before proceeding with Northern Metropolis

An alliance of environmental groups has urged the Hong Kong government to conduct an ecological study before taking forward plans for the Northern Metropolis megaproject so as to avoid the loss of wetlands.

It also called for officials to double to 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) the size of the Ramsar wetlands site on Deep Bay’s southern shore, a natural habitat in Yuen Long district protected by international treaty.

The alliance – comprising WWF-Hong Kong, the Conservancy Association, Designing Hong Kong, Green Power and the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society – said the government should also work closely with Shenzhen authorities to protect the area.

The groups welcomed government initiatives to conserve privately owned wetlands stretching over 1,000 hectares in the metropolis blueprint, an ambitious project to build 186,000 homes on 600 hectares of land and develop an IT hub near the border with mainland China. But they warned that any conservation efforts should not be compromised by future developments.

Private developers had proposed different construction projects along the buffer area between wetland conservation zones and built-up areas, which would leave many wetlands and farmlands suffering the destructive effects of land-levelling, tree clearances and the filling in of fish ponds, the alliance said.

“If any of the development projects fails to avoid and minimise the impacts on ecologically important sites, the effectiveness of the existing conservation measures will be greatly undermined and the integrity of the ecosystem will be destroyed,” said Roy Ng Hei-man, campaign manager of The Conservancy Association.

“This kind of destruction is becoming more frequent and across a wider area.”