No adjustment of ecological value was considered necessary for the identified Baeckia shrubland sites as they were classified as medium value habitat after field verification. Baeckia frutescens was found to be the most abundant species recorded within the correctly identified areas whilst other shrubby plants such as Eurya japonica, Diospyros vacciniodes, Dianella ensifolia and Melastoma sanguineum were also common. Most of the Baeckia habitats were less than one hectare in size and supported comparatively lower structural complexity than mixed shrubland. Extensive patches (almost 60 ha) of Baeckia shrubland were observed within the Pat Sin Leng Country Park (Sites 113f and g). Some specimens of B. frutescens within the Pat Sin Leng site area were found to have grown up to 3 - 4 m in height. A few of the surveyed sites were found to have been disturbed by hill fire and this could possibly be due to their proximity to grave areas (see Table G11 of Annex G for details).

Many of the identified fishponds were small in size (< 0.5 ha) and abandoned (ie not under active management). While some of the abandoned fishponds contained highly turbid, dark brown or black-coloured odorous water (and were therefore downgraded to low value), some appear to have undergone succession and become higher ecological value habitats, eg wetlands (and thus have been re-classified as Freshwater/Brackish Wetland) (see Table G13 of Annex G for details). Some of them have had part of their pond area filled for urban development (eg Site 121af) (Table 7.1m).

Actively managed fishponds are generally of medium ecological value, except for those fish rearing fishponds in Ngau Tam Mei where they were concrete in nature and thus no natural vegetation was observed on the pond edges, a low value was assigned (Table 7.1m).