Leisure Walk at Mai Po Wetland Park

I joined the Walk for Nature with two friends organized by the World Wildlife Fund on a Sunday morning, and had chance to visit Mai Po Wetland Park. The day was sunny and beautiful. This area is famous for wetland and the varieties of birds and plants.

Mai Po is reagrded as wetland under the Convention of Ramsan. To be recognized as wetland, there must be more than 20,000 birds in the area. Wetland is differnt from ocean and land, water is shallow here and suitable for various kinds of animals, birds and plants to stay. Many birds from different part of the world migrate to Mai Po at certain season and then fly to other places. However, due to weather change, temperature becomes higher and higher, thus less birds fly to Mai Pao and stay here for a period of time.

Apart from raising fund for WWF, the walkathon also aimed at raising awareness on the enviromental issues and promoting a sustainable lifestyle. Therefore, there were games and exhibition on certain spots, so as to share information on global warming, saving energy, water-saving, legal lumbering, healthy food and so on.

One interesting game is to calcuate the "Carbon footprint." We can help saving energy and protecting enviroment in our daily lives. For example:

Clothes

- send unwanted clothes to charity groups and buy less unnecessary things

- use less plastic bags and bring your own recycle bag

Eat

- eat less meat and more vegetables

- avoid buying food transparted from afar

Home

- turn off unused appliances

- set the temperature of the air-conditioner 1 degree celsius higher, you can reduce 200kg of carbon dioxide in a month, or just turn off the air-conditioner

Travel

- take public transport

- walk more whenever possible

- take train for travelling instead of by air

I think I am quite enviromental friendly and always remind myself of leading a sustainable lifestyle. But I need to promote this awarness to more people. Otherwise, the earth is till suffering from sickness.

After a few hours walk, I found the place so relaxing and beautiful. If we want to keep the nature like this, we must be proactive to share the message of enviromental protection to other people. We must start doing from ourselves.