Preserve Wetlands For Migratory Birds: Green Group

A green group said on Friday that more has to be done to preserve wetlands, even though there's been an increase in endangered black-faced spoonbills returning to Hong Kong this wintering season.

The plea from the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society came after an annual study conducted by 200 birdwatchers and researchers in Asia showed an all-time high population of the birds worldwide this year at 6,162 - an 18 percent increase from the year before.

The count in Hong Kong also saw an increase of almost 10 percent to 369, a figure that the society’s president, Yu Yat-tung, said is positive and encouraging.

However, he cautioned against compromising conservation efforts in future land development projects, such as the Northern Metropolis plan, which will affect wetland in the Deep Bay area where black-faced spoonbills are found.

Yu noted that the government’s development strategy includes a proposal for wetland conservation parks, but said they must be spacious and eco-friendly to ensure there is abundant food supply for waterbirds there.

“We need to avoid direct impacts from the development to the birds, it means that we cannot destroy the wetland. We also need to pay extra attention to how to use the buffer zone. The buffer zone is used to protect the conservation area in the middle. It doesn’t mean the buffer zone should be developed,” Yu told RTHK.

“We need more funding to do scientific research, to modify the environment, and to have a better habitat plan.”

He also called for more long-term measures in preserving wetlands, saying nearby Macau saw the number of migratory birds drop by half this winter, following development to boost the casino industry.

“The development plan has been very much occupying the black-faced spoonbills’ habitats since 20 years ago, and the wetland habitats in Macau have [shrunk] extensively,” Yu said.

“It gives us a very good lesson that maybe the spoonbill numbers may not drop immediately, but when they think it’s not a suitable site, they will leave the site.”

The population of black-faced spoonbills showed positive signs elsewhere, with Taiwan accounting for 62 percent of the total number of the migratory birds, the highest among 11 areas covered in the research, which also included Malaysia for the first time.