Since June 2009 the Wadden Sea is placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This allotment is totally justified for this unique tidal landscape. We are very proud of this, also because UNESCO has strict guidelines, when it comes to the allotment of a position of World Heritage. 

The Wadden Sea - World Heritage since June 2009

At the end of June 2009, UNESCO, the United Nations organization for nature and culture, placed the Wadden Sea on the World Heritage List. This puts the Wadden Sea on the same footing as other world famous natural wonders on the World Heritage List like the Grand Canyon in the USA and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The Wadden Sea World Heritage Site encompasses the Dutch and German parts of the Wadden Sea. It covers an area of almost 10,000 square kilometres along a coastal strip about 400 kilometres long.

Why is the Wadden Sea a World Heritage Site?

In order to be included in the World Heritage List, an area must be of outstanding universal value and be intact, and its protection must be guaranteed. UNESCO uses several different criteria to assess whether an area merits World Heritage Site status. It deemed the Wadden Sea to be globally unique in at least three of those criteria!

* Unique in its variety

The Wadden Sea has many different kinds of habitat and therefore offers a home to many plant and animal species. More than 10,000 species of terrestrial and aquatic animals, from single-celled organisms to fishes, birds and mammals, can be found in the Wadden Sea. Every year as many as 10 to 12 million migrating birds on their way from their breeding areas in Siberia, Canada or Scandinavia to their wintering grounds in West Europe and Africa stop over in the Wadden Area for short or extended periods. Only here will they find enough food to complete their journey of thousands of kilometres.

* Natural forces and dynamics prevail

The Wadden Sea is unique in the whole world in demonstrating how nature, plants and animals adapt themselves to constantly changing conditions in an area where fresh water (from land) and salt water (from the ocean) meet. The continuous interplay between wind, sand and tides in the Wadden Sea has created an incredible range of plants and animals specially adapted to cope with these changes. This huge variety is the magnificent result of natural processes that have been at play since the last Ice Age.

* Young und unique

The Wadden Sea is geologically a very young area. The landscape including its mudflats and dunes was formed and is being formed rapidly. At the same time, the area reveals a lot about our planet?s recent geological past, i.e. the era from the last Ice Age (10 to 12 thousand years ago) to the present. The Wadden Sea shows the dynamics of how entirely new landscapes take shape. Today, you can see with your own eyes how the landscape has evolved and how it continues to do so.

More information can be found at www.worldheritage-waddensea.org