The Project started in December 2021 and will last for three years. The first phase mainly focuses on ecological research, habitat planning, hydrology study, as well as trial works on habitat management. Besides, we focus on engaging and co-operating with Shui Hau villagers and stakeholders during the project's first phase. At the project's beginning, we met with Shui Hau villagers and stakeholders several times to explain the project vision, information, and planning. Finally, support was gained from many of them. The above work in the first phase would be beneficial to the establishment of re-cultivation and long-term wetlands management strategies in Shui Hau.

Ecological surveys

Ecological baseline surveys and standardised monitoring were kicked off and covered 8 taxa, including vascular plant, mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile, freshwater fish, butterfly and odonate. For amphibian, reptile and freshwater fish, night surveys will be conducted as most of them are nocturnal species.

You can see some bamboo sticks standing on the marsh, which indicates the fixed area for surveyors to carry out standardised monitoring and examine the ecological effects with various habitat management measures as a before-and-after experimental design.

Hydrology study

Hydrology study is one of the important tasks at the beginning of the Project. The data collected from the hydrology study can help revise and adjust habitat management measures in the future. Therefore, the hydrology study setups were installed at different locations in the wetland for the collection of data.