2
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1
হ
(22)
Miss P Barclay Smith CBE Secretary-General
The International Council
for Bird Preservation c/o British Museum (Natural History) Cromwell Road
LONDON SW7
14)
Telephone 01-
Your reference
Our reference
Date
13 June 1975
Thank you for your letter PBS/HMHS of 28 May about the conservation of the Mai Po marshes in Hong Kong.
I assume that you have by now seen the reply sent by Mr Robson, Secretary of the Environment in Hong Kong, to your Vice-President Frofessor Jean Dorst on 22 lay who had written to the Governor of Hong Kong about the resolution adopted at the 16th World Conference of the International Council for Bird Preservation held in Australia in August 1974. I enclose a copy of this letter in case you have not yet seen the original.
You will see that, in his reply to Professor Dorst, Ir Robson deals with the 2 main issues raised in your letter of 28 May, namely the building of a housing estate adjacent to the Mai Po marshes and the question of conservation measures in the marshes themselves.
If I may take the second point first, you will see from Mr Robson' letter that the Committee which advised the Hong Kong Government on ecology and wild life has recently endorsed a comprehensive report on the future of the Mai Po marshes. The report recommends that part of the area should be scheduled as a nature reserve and part developed as a wild fowl park. Notwithstanding the problems. mentioned in Mr Robson's letter, the Hong Kong Government, who are concerned to see that all reasonable steps are taken to preserve wild life in the Mai Po marshes and elsewhere, are considering the
As a establishment of a nature reserve in the Mai Po marshes. first step, the Government has, from 6 June, restricted entry into the area.
As far as the housing development is concerned, the Advisory Committee on Recreational Development and Nature Conservation in Hong Kong does not take the view that a garden housing estate is incompatible with the proposed nature reserve and wild fowl park, provided that a protective bund & screen of trees is provided and properly maintained. The maintenance of works of this kind would be the responsibility of the Estate Management Committee and could be controlled through lease conditions.
S
I hope you will agree, in the light of the information given above,
/that
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