Mai Po Logo: Pied Kingfisher |
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Thank you to all the people who has helped in their own way over the
past nine week to work for the reopening of Mai Po and for government
to establish criteria to decide whether to close the Reserve in future
cases of bird flu.
Even though the government is now using the international 21-days standard
in deciding when to reopen Mai Po after a case of bird flu, they still
need to tell the public:
- Why it was necessary to close Mai Po in the first place. None
of the countries with cases of bird flu have closed their nature
reserves. In Scotland where a dead swan infected with the bird
flu virus was recently found, the government is even telling
the public that the countryside is still safe to visit and encourages
people to go out.
- How far away from Mai Po does the dead infected wild bird need to
be before the Hong Kong Government makes a decision on whether to close
Mai Po? This time, they used the infected Peregrine Falcon at Tin Shui
Wai to start the 21 days count down for the reopening of Mai Po. If
the dead bird was found in Wanchai or Lamma, would Mai Po need to be
closed?
There are still many questions the government needs to answer if we
are to stop them from closing Mai Po again next winter.
Our Mai Po visiting programmes are
now back to normal operation, new programmes such as Gei Wai shrimp
harvesting tours, insect watch, etc, are launched, and welcome all people
to join. Interested parties who would like to join our Mai Po Public Visit
Programme, please call 2526 4473. For enquiries on School
Visit Programme, please call 2652 0285.
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