TNAG-0532-FCO40-627-Conservation-of-wildlife-in-Hong-Kong-1976 — Page 40

THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR BIRD PRESERVATION

Organised 1922 by Dr. T. Gilbert Pearson U.S.A.

Pent Emeritus: Jean Delacour (France and U.S.A.) President: Professor S. Dillon Ripley (U.S.A.) Vice-Presidents: Professor J. Dorst (France)

Dr. Y. Yamashina (Japan)

Professor K. Curry-Lindahl

Secretary-General: Miss Phyllis Barclay-Smith, C.B.E. (Great Britain)

Secretaries: R. D. Chancellor (Great Britain)

Roland C. Clement (U.S.A.)

R. J. Dowsett (Zambia)

Dr. Won Pyong-Oh (Korea)

Kuseum National d'Histoire

Naturelle,

55 rue de Buffon, 75 PARIS Ve, France

His Excellency Sir Murray MacLehose, K.C.M.G., M.B.E.,

Governor of Hong Kong,

Government House,

HONG KONG

deat an Yer akan keped

2 April 1975

Than

17

}

Your Excellency,

At the World Conference of the International Council for Bird Preservation, held in Canberra in August 1974, at which I, in the unavoidable absence of the President, took the Chair, a Resolution was unanimously adopted as follows:

RECOGNISING that the area in the New Territories of Hong Kong known as the Deep Bay Marshes is a wetland of international importance, and that repeated requests have been made to the Government of Hong Kong since 1962 for its conservation;

REGRETS that conservation measures so far taken by the Government of long Kong fall far short of those considered by the Conference to be necessary;

and

STRONGLY URGES the Government of Hong Kong to ensure that no further deterioration of the habitat takes place, and to initiate adequate conservation measures in that section of the Deep Bay Marshes know as the Mai Po Marshes to make it a Strict Nature Reserve, together with the provision of facilities to Xmake that area of maximum value to zoological and botanical science, both

locally and internationally.

This Resolution was forwarded to Your Excellency on 22 November 1974 and acknowledged.

We are greatly concerned to learn from our National Section in Hong Kong that a housing estate for 30,000 people is planned in an area immediately contiguous to the Mai Po Marshes (the 'no hunting' area).

We have seen a copy of the suggested lease conditions for the housing estate, and though these may be adequate so long as the land is controlled and strictly managed by one authority we would, with respect, point out that as the housing units are intended for sale this would not apply once the estate was occupied.

Continued

National Sections operating in:

Chile

Ecuador

Ethiopia Faroe Islands Finland France

Guatemala Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India

Italy

Japan Korea

Mexico

Netherlands New Zealand Norway Panama

Portugal Rhodesia Rumania South Africa

Thailand

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TEEFERER

Argentine Australia Austria Belgium Bolivia Brazil Canada Ceylon

Columbia Congo Republic Costa Rica Cuba Cyprus Czechoslovakia Denmark

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Malta

Mauritius

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Poland

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Surinam Sweden Switzerland

PS/G

9.4.7