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The field mission for the evaluation of the Dutch-German Wadden Sea
World Heritage Nomination was carried out from 1 to 11 September 2008 by
Mr Pedro Rosabal, Senior Programme Officer of the Global Programme on
Protected Areas of the International Union for the Conservation of
Nature (IUCN). The IUCN is the organization that carries out the
evaluation of the World Heritage nominations for the World Heritage
Center and the World Heritage Committee.
The objectives of the IUCN field mission were
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to become familiar with all aspects of the nominated property;
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to review the property boundaries and buffer zone boundaries;
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to evaluate the management system and management effectiveness;
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to review actual and potential threats to the property; and
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to evaluate local support for the nomination.
The Wadden Sea field mission involved visits to representative areas and
protection and management issues of the nominated property and meetings
with a broad number of people, in total more than 100 representing
governments, regional and local authorities, scientific institutions,
advisory boards, non-governmental organizations and private
stakeholders. Pedro Rosabal commended the state parties for the
excellent nomination dossier and the very thoroughly prepared programme,
which had given him the opportunity to gain a very broad insight into
how the Wadden Sea is protected and managed and the support which the
nomination enjoys among the people at the coast. The field mission had
accomplished all its objectives.
The field mission is an important component of the IUCN evaluation of
World Heritage nominations but there are also other components. A
component is also the external review by independent experts. The
nomination dossier has been sent to ca. 35 external experts
knowledgeable about the property or its natural values and so far more
than 20 have reacted. The experts are all based outside Germany and The
Netherlands to avoid conflict of interests.
A further component is the IUCN World Heritage Panel. It advises the
IUCN on its work on World Heritage, in particular in relation to the
evaluation of nominations. It meets usually in December and the
following March at IUCN Headquarters in Switzerland to examine each
nomination. The Panel intensively reviews the nomination dossiers, field
mission reports, comments from external reviewers and other relevant
material, and provides its technical advice to IUCN on recommendations
for each nomination. A final report is prepared and forwarded to the
World Heritage Centre in May for distribution to the members of the
World Heritage Committee which makes the final decision on whether or
not to inscribe the property on the World Heritage List in June/July.
The
decision on the inscription of the Dutch – German Wadden Sea on the
World Heritage List is anticipated to be taken by the World Heritage
Committee at its annual meeting in Sevilla, Spain in June 2009. But
before the decision can be taken there are still more work to be done
and a few hurdles to be taken.
Downloads:
The
Nomination Dossier / Background Document / Links
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