Mai Po Wildlife Education Centre and Nature Reserve

Mai Po Nature Reserve lies in the northwestern corner of the New Territories of Hong Kong on land belonging to the Hong Kong SAR Government.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) controls access onto the site in order to minimise disturbance to the wildlife. Management of the wetland habitats and running of specially guided visits by school and public groups are carried out by WWF Hong Kong www.wwf.org.hk/eng/maipo

WWF raises about 60% of the funds needed to operate the Reserve through visitor income and special fundraising events (e.g. annual Big Bird Race), whilst the Hong Kong Government provides the remaining 40% through various annual subventions and support of habitat management projects.

Some 40,000 people visit Mai Po each year, with a quarter of those being primary and secondary school students on visits guided by WWF Education Officers during weekdays www.wwf.org.hk/eng/education/school/maipo.php.

The remaining visitors come at other times on visits guided by part-time interpreters www.wwf.org.hk/eng/maipo/publicvisit.

Founded/opened

The Mai Po Marshes has been well known as a site for migratory waterbirds, especially in winter, since as far back as the late 1800s when tours were organised from Hong Kong island for visitors.

In 1975, the HK Government designated Mai Po as a restricted access area after lobbying by local conservationists who protested against the government’s decision to approve a large-scale housing development adjacent to the site.

This status aimed to control the number of visitors entering the site and thus minimise disturbance. Access was only allowed for people who had special Mai Po Entry Permits issued by AFCD, who also set up warden posts at the main entry points into the site in order to enforce the access restrictions.

AFCD also administer the legal aspects of the site. In 1976, Mai Po was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Despite these protection measures, the land within Mai Po was still being managed for commercial shrimp farming rather than for conservation and education. When WWF-HK was formed in 1981, they decided to develop Mai Po as a wildlife education centre and nature reserve.

By 1983, WWF had raised sufficient money to take over their first set of gei wai for conservation and education and by 1995, was able to take over management of all the remaining shrimp ponds. WWF has since built a Wildlife Education Centre, Field Studies Centre, a series of birdwatching hides, boardwalks and other visitor facilities in the Reserve. Funds for these works came from private companies, individuals, the HK Jockey Club and the HK SAR Government.

Description

Mai Po Nature Reserve consists of 24 intertidal shrimp ponds locally called ‘ gei wai‘ that were created in the early 1940s by impounding the coastal mangroves. Each of these ponds is approx. 10 ha in size and were traditionally managed. In the 1970s, however, a small number of ponds were subdivided into deep water ponds for fish farming, especially in the southern end of the Reserve. The gei wai support dwarf mangrove forests and reedbeds, whilst the deep water ponds are essentially open areas of water.

When WWF took over these ponds for conservation management and education purposes, some of the gei wai were converted to wildlife habitats. This included removing some of the bunds to enlarge selected ponds to act as shallow water high-tide waterbird roosts. In the late 1990s, some of the deep water ponds were converted to rain-fed freshwater ponds which attract roosting waterfowl in winter, and odonates in summer.

Apart from the Wildlife Education Centre and Field Studies Centre, other attractions for visitors include a 600m long floating boardwalk that winds through the intertidal mangroves to the edge of Deep Bay. Here, a number of floating birdwatching hides allow views over the mudflat and waterbirds that may be present. There is also a 400m fixed boardwalk close to the Education Centre that takes visitors through a mangrove forest, reedbed and a rain-fed freshwater marsh.

The 1.5 km route from the car park to the Education Centre is fully accessible for visitors in wheelchairs.

Key species/features

The Mai Po Nature Reserve is part of the Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site that now supports some 54,000 wintering waterbirds, plus another 20,000-30,000 shorebirds on spring and autumn passage.

Of the birds, some 27 species are considered threatened with some 20% of the world’s wintering population of the endangered Black-faced Spoonbill found in these wetlands.
The mangroves are the sixth largest area of such habitat protected in China and the reedbeds are probably the largest remaining in Guangdong Province, southern China.

The gei wai are of cultural value and are one of the few remaining shrimp ponds that are still functional.

Staffing

WWF has around 25 staff permanently based at Mai Po, led by a Centre Manager. Nearly half of these are involved with improvement and maintenance of the wetland habitats and infrastructure for visitors, whilst the remaining are responsible for the monitoring and research work, running the wetland training programme, and management of the public visit programme.

The Centre Manager reports to the Head Office of WWF-HK that is based on HK Island. CEPA activities are conducted by a separate team of Education Officers who are based off-site but visit the Reserve on a regular basis to guide school tours.