Mai Po wetlands visitor center rebuilt as '21st century nature classroom'

Sophie Hui

A visitor center in Mai Po wetlands was opened yesterday after it was rebuilt into a "21st century nature classroom" with the support of the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

The new WWF Jockey Club Mai Po Peter Scott Visitor Centre is part of the Mai Po Nature Reserve Infrastructure Upgrade Project after the club donated HK$347 million to World Wide Fund for Nature in Hong Kong in 2015.

After the redevelopment, the Peter Scott Visitor Centre now has nine guest rooms for visitors to stay overnight, as visitors can join its two-day-and-one-night eco tours from January, to learn and understand biodiversity of Mai Po wetlands. Each tour can accommodate 16 guests.

Through redevelopment, the center aims to enhance its capacity to offer high-quality education, ecological training and research.

Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin, officiated the opening of the center yesterday along with club Steward Henry Chan Hin-lee, Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Leung Siu-fai, chairman of WWF-Hong Kong Dan Bradshaw, and Seung Oh Suh, the executive director of Ramsar Regional Centre - East Asia.

"Students can not only experience nature here in person, but they can also enhance their understanding of Hong Kong's natural environment," Choi said.

"I encourage schools to organize more students to visit the center. Through outdoor experiences, students can learn, explore and appreciate biodiversity."

Apart from the visitor center, two new tower hides for bird-watching were built, while the existing one was renovated, and the education center was upgraded.

A wooden boardwalk named the Jockey Club Nature Trail was built with universal accessibility standards.

The new and upgraded facilities will allow WWF-Hong Kong to engage in environmental education activities where the wetlands provide sanctuary to over 2,000 species of flora and fauna and hosts around 100,000 birds on their winter migration.

Some 15,000 students from different schools and about 15,000 visitors participated in guided tours and awareness programs.

The facilities will offer visiting scientists, local and regional researchers and conservationists to conduct research and ecological studies, while facilitating knowledge exchange on wetland management.

Chan said the club has long supported sustainable initiatives that are in line with its mission. He added that the club has been supporting WWF-Hong Kong since the 1980s, including helping establish an integrated education center at Mai Po.

The new visitor center aligns with President Xi Jinping's vision of promoting wetland conservation.