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6.
However, the Mai Po Marshes proper has been scheduled as a "no hunting" area under the Wild Birds and Wild Mammals Protection Ordinance and it is now proposed that they be gazetted as a restricted area under the Seventh Schedule to that Ordinance. This will mean that no person will be allowed to enter into the Mai Po Marshes without a permit granted by the licensing authority. This will have no effect upon the present occupants of the area and the workers employed there as they would automatically be given such a permit. Because of this it is not felt that there will be much opposition to restriction of entry into the area and of course the kei wais will continue to be operated. You will now appreciate that the latter appears to be the key to maintaining the present balance of wild life in the marshes.
7.
We must, therefore, recognise that in the event of the kei wais ceasing to provide an economic return to their operators, they will not be dredged and maintained. In this event either :-
(a) the kei wai licences will have to be terminated
possibly on payment of some ex gratia compensation, and staff subsequently provided to maintain them;
(b)
or
the kei wai operators will have to be paid to run them and so maintain the conditions that are so favourable to bird life.
There is no provision for such a contingency in the estimates of cost quoted in paragraph 4(b) above, but clearly it must be taken into account as it is not an unlikely possibility.
8.
Finally, if the preservation of the wild life in the marshes is of such vital international significance, it would be only sensible to seek the implementation of similar conservation arrangements by the Chinese authorities in their part of the marshes on the Deep Bay as the area of marshes. in Chinese territory far exceeds the area of the Mai Po Marshes. I do not think this is properly the responsibility of either the Hong Kong Government or of Her Majesty's Government but of the international wild life and conservation bodies that have shown such particular concern for the preservation of the marshes.
9.
I trust this gives you the information you require to answer any further enquiries which may be made into this matter.
Yours sincerely
Leiress
(J.J. Robson)
Secretary for the Environment.