Mai Po Wetland Habitats

The Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar site in Hong Kong is an important staging and wintering site along the East Asia Flyway and supports large numbers of migratory birds, including 22 globally threatened species. Thus, rising sea levels, stronger storm surges and shrinking mudflats will combine to decrease the availability of habitats for the waterbirds in Mai Po in the future, and adaptation plans to counter the threats from climate change and offshore subsidence are needed now to ensure persistence of migrations and flyway functionality. Here, we modelled the impacts of climate change and decreasing sedimentation rates on the important bird habitats in the Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar site to support a climate adaptation strategy that will continue to provide and support migratory birds. The Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar site is located in the North West New Territories of Hong Kong, along the southern edges of the Inner Deep Bay of the Pearl River estuary (Figure 1a). Mai Po is comprised of tidal mudflats, coastal mangroves, marshes, and fishponds, and now represents Hong Kong’s largest remaining wetland. Mai Po is about 1,500 ha in extent, with a 380 ha nature reserve zoned within it. Mai Po supports over 50,000 to 80,000 wintering waterbirds and another 20,000-30,000 shorebirds use it as a staging area during their annual migration in spring and autumn. Regular visitors to Mai Po include the Endangered Black-faced Spoonbill (Platalea minor) and Nordmann’s Greenshank (Tringa guttifer), and, occasionally, the Critically Endangered Spoon-billed sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea). Mai Po played a significant role in the population recovery of the Black-faced spoonbill, and now regularly supports over 10% of the global population.