Conservationists have discovered that greater than 1 / 4 of Hong Kong’s chicken species stay at farmlands the place the huge Northern Metropolis shall be constructed, though the websites account for lower than 1 per cent of the town’s whole space, prompting requires better habitat safety.
Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden on Wednesday mentioned the year-long survey overlaying 9 websites within the northern New Territories recorded 154 chicken species, representing 27 per cent of all identified sorts within the metropolis. The determine additionally included 66 threatened species.
The conservation centre mentioned precedence for habitat conservation was typically given to countryside areas and fishponds somewhat than farmlands, which had been an integral a part of the town’s biodiversity.
“The ecological value of agricultural land has long been overlooked,” mentioned Yang Jianhuan, conservation supervisor on the centre.
“We have country parks to preserve our mountains and the Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site for wetlands, but we have never tried to protect our farmland habitat.”
Researchers scoured the websites throughout the deliberate Northern Metropolis, a megaproject that goals to determine a global innovation and expertise hub and produce 900,000 flats for two.5 million folks, in addition to creating as much as 650,000 jobs, within the New Territories throughout roughly 30,000 hectares (74,132 acres).
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The plan, first unveiled by former chief govt Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in 2021, additionally contains establishing three new wetland conservation parks spanning 1,220 hectares. The authorities will take again non-public wetlands and fishponds in areas akin to Tsim Bei Tsui, Nam Sang Wai and Sam Po Shue to create the brand new parks.
The staff surveyed the 9 websites between December 2021 and November 2022, overlaying 167 hectares in places such because the Sandy Ridge wetland mosaic, Tai Po Tin, Heung Yuen Wai and Chow Tin. The whole space represents 0.15 per cent of the town’s land.
But the examine discovered that preserving wetlands and fishponds alone was not sufficient. It mentioned the remaining farmlands inside the Northern Metropolis additionally offered “critical habitats for a significant number of globally and locally threatened species”, together with the critically endangered yellow-breasted bunting, in addition to the better noticed eagle and black-capped kingfisher, which had been categorised as weak.
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The analysis staff recognized 11 amphibian species and as many reptilian ones, such because the Chinese bullfrog, thought-about endangered by authorities in mainland China, and the buff striped keelback, categorised as threatened.
Based on verbal accounts collected from residents, the staff additionally steered that the Eurasian river otter, thought-about near-threatened globally, may presumably reside within the Sandy Ridge wetlands.
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“The survey results indicate that the biodiversity in the farmland habitats of the Northern Metropolis area is rich and unique, not easily replaceable by the existing conservation system,” mentioned Philip Lo Yik-fui, senior conservation officer on the centre.
The staff mentioned the farmlands had been polluted at current by waste water and rubbish from close by poultry farms, villages, wrecking yards and e-waste dumps. “Some streams were rife with the odour of chemicals,” Lo mentioned.
The centre urged the federal government to formulate a method for farmland conservation and build a community of walkways, mountain climbing trails and wildlife corridors to enhance ecologically delicate areas and “link important natural, agricultural and cultural features for conservation, education and recreation purposes”.
The Post has contacted the Development Bureau for remark.
