Banson Leung

Banson Leung

Wetlands Officer, WWF-HK

Banson Leung has served as a Wetlands Officer with the Conservation Team at Mai Po Nature reserve for the last two years. His passion for birds and bird-watching led him to leave his work with the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society in order to address environmental degradation. Currently, Banson works alongside other Wetlands Officers at Mai Po Nature Reserve to monitor the reserve, conduct research, and provide critical information for WWF-HK and the general public.

“They can come from Mainland to Hong Kong. They just pass the border or just use a boat to cross the river. They usually use the trap to catch the mudskipper and then, because the mudskipper is a major food source for the migratory bird when they overexploit, maybe over-catch the mudskipper…”

Banson Leung Transcription

…The next year, the mudskipper need time to grow back, and then, when the migratory bird come back next year they lost the food source. That is the, um, maybe a great impact for the Mai Po Nature Reserve. We have around 40,000 migratory bird using this region. If the people don’t come to get the mudskipper then, no matter what the country, the situation would be much better.

“Mai Po Nature Reserve is classified as the Ramsar site in 1995, before the Ramsar site was classified, Mai Po is a traditional gei wai region that rear the fish and the shrimps, and then after we were classified as the Ramsar site the WWF-Hong Kong would like to do more in the Mai Po Nature Reserve. Maybe we run the gei wai in a traditional way…”

Banson Leung Transcription

…that hope that the birds would [be] familiar with those traditional management, then they can — also they can have a better quality like the higher supply of fish and shrimps for food, and then they will have a peaceful place for roosting. This is the purpose, that we manage the Mai Po Nature Reserve. Before I come to work for WWF, I worked for the Hong Kong Birdwatching Society. I love birdwatching, that’s why I work for the Hong Kong Birdwatching Society. But after a few years later, I think I can do more, rather than just I love the birds. And then Mai Po is a major spot or the hot spot that the birdwatcher love it, that’s why I’m thinking if I can do something that can help to manage the Mai Po be a better place for the birds, that’s why I can enjoy this place and other birdwatchers can enjoy this place.

“People don’t really trust about the science. We send out many reports every year, but the response rate would be a little bit low. Maybe they will doubt that how your research is done or something like that. I think that if the government and the public can trust more about science, then we can have a better way to do the environmental protection…”

Banson Leung Transcription

…That’s why we have the research and monitoring team and education team. We mainly focus on science, because we are not very good at converting science to normal-verse, to the public. That’s why we have the education team. We provide information for the education team and then they help us to convert our data into words. Then they can give the public a good, clear meaning and then can convince them to get closer to the nature.