be rebuffed by the courts and government agencies last year the local planning board rejected the most recent proposal from a developer because of concerns about the potential loss of wetlands the developer said it would appealthe total size of the wetlands area is about 4350 acres equivalent to five of manhattans central park part of the wetlands are off limits to largescale development including the mai po nature reserve which is protected under the ramsar convention an international treaty for the conservation of wetlandsthe reserve includes traditional shrimp farming ponds that have largely disappeared from the rest of china the ponds known as gei wai make use of the tides to suck in young shrimp from deep bay the ponds are then closed off allowing the shrimp to grow in protected lagoons until they are harvested by draining the water during an ebb tidethe world wide fund for nature in hong kong operates 21 gei wai in the reserve the shrimp are harvested at nightimagecreditbilly hc kwok for the new york timesone night several pounds of shrimp were netted as a group of environment officials from mainland china watched and later dined on the shrimp which were accompanied by soy sauce chili peppers and beerswhen we harvest there are small fish and shrimp we dont want and the birds come and eat said wen xianji assistant director of the mai po reserve this traditional way of aquaculture benefits both humans and birdsthe nature reserve has the added protection of its location along hong kongs border with shenzhen where permits limit entry from the hong kong side and a 15foot fence topped with barbed wire blocks people from crossing from the mainlandstill poachers do sometimes visit by boat to catch mudskippers amphibious fish used in chinese medicinebut other areas nearby like nam sang wai have less concrete protectionsthe most recent development proposal in nam sang wai would have included apartments for 6500 peoplethe developer a joint venture between a family that has long owned the land and henderson land development a large hong kong property company said it would follow a model like the london wetland center which included a residential development that financed a habitat preservation projectthe proposed development itself would take up less than 10 percent of nam sang wais 400 acres with the remainder preserved as managed wetlands its backers sayenvironmental groups however oppose the planso far from what weve seen the scale of development is not compatible with the area said woo mingchuan conservation officer for the hong kong bird watching society its quite sensitive and unique and they want to build residential towersimagecreditbilly hc kwok for the new york timesms woo said she believed any plan that sacrifices some of the wetlands would only encourage further encroachmentwe are afraid that once approved it will be a precedent for similar applications in the future she saidfor now the area remains a popular weekend destination for walkers cyclists and nature lovers with the entrance to the wetlands