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Managing Mai Po
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© WK Leung |
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WWF Hong Kong first became involved in conserving coastal wetlands in 1983, when we began to manage the Mai Po Nature Reserve. Since then, the ecological and educational value of the wetlands of Mai Po and Inner Deep Bay have truly been recognized and 1,500 ha was listed as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention in 1995. WWF Hong Kong is also working to ensure the 'wise use' of the wetlands around the Reserve through management agreement projects with local fishpond farmers, and "Private ¡V Public Partnerships" with developers who hold land rights in and around the Ramsar Site.
As some 80% of the birds recorded at Mai Po are migratory, WWF Hong Kong has a responsibility to cooperate with wetland reserves in China to ensure the conservation and 'wise use' of those sites, so that these migratory birds have a chain of well managed stopping-over sites that they can use during migration. As a result, WWF Hong Kong began running a Wetland Management Training Programme based at Mai Po in 1991. Its aim is to build the capacity of officials from Mainland China who are responsible for the conservation and management of wetlands and wetland nature reserves. The Training Programme has been a great success, and is currently supported by a number of related projects aimed at conserving the East-Asian Australian flyway for migratory birds.
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