【明報專訊】THERE IS finally hope that the controversy over conserving and developing Sha Lo Tung (SLT), Tai Po, (which has dragged on for nearly four decades) will come to an end. The Chief Executive-in-Council has decided that the government should offer a developer a piece of land at the Shuen Wan Restored Landfill (Tai Po) in return for a private slot in SLT that is of great ecological importance. The site in question is the most important dragonfly habitat in the territory, and its ecological importance is second only to that of Mai Po and Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site (internationally important). The government was bureaucratic and procrastinated in the past ten-odd years, so much so that it failed promptly to reach an agreement with the developer. As a result, villagers there have brought the land in question under cultivation without authorisation and thus caused some damage there. It counts as a piece of good news that the government has made the non-in-situ land exchange decision, albeit belated.