Designating Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site
|
Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention is an intergovernmental treaty signed on 2 February 1971 in the city of Ramsar in Iran and entered into force in 1975. The Convention provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. The Convention's mission is "the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world". More than 90% of United Nations member states are Contracting Parties to the Convention. The Ramsar Convention entered into force in China on 31 July 1992. The Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site is the 7th Ramsar Site of China. For more information about the Ramsar Convention, please visit the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands website. |
||||
|
Designating Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site About 1500 ha of wetland in the Mai Po and Inner Deep Bay region was listed as a Ramsar Site on 4 September 1995. The site has a shallow bay with extensive intertidal mudflats backed by mangal, tidal shrimp ponds (gei wais), fishponds and reedbeds. The mangal is the largest in Hong Kong while the reedbed is the largest in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province.
The site serves as an important over-wintering and refueling station site for the waterbirds during their migrations between the Arctic Russia and Australia. The total migratory birds using the area each year is over 50,000 of which some of them are globally threatened species including Black-faced Spoonbill, Saunders' s Gull and Nordmann's Greenshank. What listing criteria have Mai Po Inner Deep Bay met to be designated as a Ramsar Site? |
||||
|
World Wetlands Day 2 February is designated as the World Wetlands Day (WWD) to commemorate the signing of the Ramsar Convention. With a global theme advocated each year, the day is celebrated worldwide by Governments and non-governmental organisations to raise public awareness of the importance of wetland conservation. The Hong Kong Wetland Park also organises activities based on the annual theme of WWD to deliver wetland conservation messages to the public. Click here to browse past activities.
|
