TNAG-0532-FCO40-627-Conservation-of-wildlife-in-Hong-Kong-1976 — Page 91

Enter & THY

THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR BIRD PRESERVATION

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

resident 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)

c/o British Museum (Natural History) Cromwell Road, London, S.W.7.

Telegrams: ICBP, Nathismus, Southkens, London

Tel: 01-589 6323

14/5A

PBS/HMHS

Dear Mr. Wotton,

submit to

Mu. Written

A. L. Wotton, Esq.,

Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department, Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

LONDON, S. W. 1.

RECEIVED

F =2

28 May 1975

RA

30 MAY 19775

NLAI

ACF.

NKKI

22

(24)

203

NICK 7/6 2/6

With reference to your letter of 28 November 1974, in which you replied to my letter of 22 November regarding the resolutions passed at the 16th World Conference of the International Council for Bird Preservation held in Australia in August 1974, I am now writing especially with regard to resolution No. 22, which reads 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 Hong 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 known as the Mai Po Marshes to make it a Strict Nature Reserve, together with the provision of facilities to make that area of maximum value to zoological and botanical science, both locally and internationally.

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. A letter on this matter, a copy of which I enclose, was sent to the Governor of Hong Kong on April 2 by the Vice-President of the I.C.B.P., Professor Jean Dorst (who was Chairman of the meeting in Australia at which the resolution in question was adopted). He received a reply, dated 17 April 1975, stating that the matter was under consideration and that a substantive reply would be addressed to him as soon as possible, but no further communication has yet be been received.

I have been informed by our Hong Kong National Section that there has been considerable local protest regarding the details and affects of the housing scheme. I have recently been sent a copy of a letter written by Mr. J. J. Robson, Secretary for the Environment, Colonial Secretariat, Hong Kong,

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