Box 9T The Wadden Sea (Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands)

East-Friesian Wadden Sea, Germany

Source: D Wascher


The Wadden Sea is one of the largest tidal wetland areas in the world, providing habitats for waterfowl and shorebirds and critical stopover points for coastal birds which migrate along the East Atlantic flyway with up to 12 million individuals of 50 species each year. The rich and varied ecosystem is also a critical spawning and feeding area for 102 species of North Sea fish as well as for the harbour seal (Phoca vitulina), the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) and the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).

The representative sites of the Wadden Sea (Sites 36, 38 and 64 on Map 9.9) have been selected as examples of a number of habitat types: dune systems, saltmarshes, estuaries and mudflats, barrier islands, mussel beds and seagrasses. However, the listing of these three sites is not designed to single them out as requiring particular management efforts ­ indeed this would be at variance with the regional approach to conservation which has been developed over more than a decade.

Due to the long history of human intervention, people are an integral part of this system, but the extent and diversity of human uses is now threatening to undermine the integrity of the entire system. Today, the Wadden Sea is fringed by one of the most industrialised regions of Europe and the construction of port facilities and embankments has resulted in the substantial loss of habitats. During the last five decades, for example, more than 33 per cent of all saltmarshes were lost to embankments. Many remaining areas are exposed to other stresses such as dumping, excavation, infilling, aquaculture, tourism, hunting, and changes to the water regime through civil engineering projects.

Mechanical damage to the benthos is a widespread problem, a result of both direct exploitation and incidental damage. Concern has been expressed over the extent of mussel and cockle harvesting from the Dutch Wadden Sea, and an important decision to limit negative ecological effects of these fisheries was taken at the last Wadden Sea trilateral conference (1991). Pollution through urban, industrial and agricultural runoff and sewage are also triggering community changes, with algal growth smothering the rooted halophytes in nutrient-rich waters. Unfortunately, the threats to the Wadden Sea are not local ­ and local efforts alone will not be sufficient to protect it indefinitely. Generic problems such as pollution from land-based sources and alteration to marine communities through non-sustainable practices will need to be addressed on the European or perhaps even global scale to ensure long-term conservation of this exceptional coastal marine area.

Jurisdiction over the Wadden Sea is shared between Denmark (10 per cent), Germany (60 per cent) and The Netherlands (30 per cent). The countries maintain sovereignty over those sections of the Wadden Sea for which they have jurisdiction, but in 1982 they signed the Joint Declaration on the Protection of the Wadden Sea. In addition, a Guiding Principle on the Trilateral Wadden Sea Policy was adopted at the Sixth Trilateral Meeting of Ministers in 1991, with the aim of wise use and the appreciation of precautionary principles in regional planning (Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, 1992). There are also proposals to make a joint nomination of the Wadden Sea to the World Heritage Convention, and to look at the possibility of a common Ramsar site and a common Natura 2000 site (see Nature Conservation below).