1. Policy & Management

Wadden Sea World Heritage Site. What is happening?

Immediately following the decision of the World Heritage Committee, on 26 June 2009 in Sevilla, to inscribe the Dutch-German Wadden Sea on the World Heritage List, a comprehensive communication program was launched, which had been agreed with the main stakeholders. It consisted of the central website portal http://www.waddensea-worldheritage.org/ with a trailer, a common brochure in English, German and Dutch, posters, banners, and flags. The response from the broader public and the media, over the summer, to the inscription of the Wadden Sea on the World Heritage List was huge. The inscription was celebrated in various events along the coasts with all stakeholders involved. Many articles were published in national and local news papers and in the international media. !

The inscription of the Wadden Sea on the World Heritage List successfully concludes a long period of preparing the nomination. Now starts a new and no less exiting and challenging period to continue protecting and managing the site together with all involved stakeholders. It is a heritage that we are basically all responsible for. The designation opens many opportunities in particular with regard to tourism and interpretation to advance regional development, provided that this is done in accordance with the purpose of the designation.

Therefore, on 28 August 2009, a workshop with stakeholders was held on the initiative of the secretariat. The main goal was to draft a joint Communication and Marketing Action Plan for the Wadden Sea World Heritage property for the period until the Trilateral Governmental Conference in March 2010, as a follow up of the action plan developed as a result of the Bremen workshop in February 2009. Generally, the participants felt that the communication strategy had been successful and produced a number of key products within a very short period of time. It was, however, also felt that it was essential to follow-up on the marketing and communication of the site and enhance and extend the good cooperation "in" the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site.

As a result of the workshop, a Communication and Marketing Action Plan will be developed for the period until the Wadden Sea Conference on Sylt in March 2010. The plan consists of four themes, namely the further development of the website portal, the development of a corporate design, the development of the tourism marketing strategy and information and awareness activities. During this period also the enhancement of the collaboration between the stakeholders is an essential issue.

The activities undertaken, the good spirit of cooperation and enthusiasm amongst the stakeholders is remarkable. We have undoubtedly entered a new period of Wadden Sea protection and stakeholder collaboration.

4th Wadden Sea Day 2009

The 4th Wadden Sea Day on 27 August 2008 was organized by the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat in cooperation with the National Park Lower Saxon Wadden Sea under the motto "New developments - new perspectives - new links". About 80 participants from all three countries gathered at the "Wattenmeerhaus" in Wilhelmshaven to discuss new perspectives of the over 30-year old trilateral cooperation as an input to the preparation of the 11th Trilateral Governmental Conference on the island of Sylt in March 2010.
The inscription of the Dutch-German Wadden Sea on the UNESCO World Heritage List is the result of the 30-year intensive and successful transboundary cooperation on the protection of the Wadden Sea. This unique award gives also a global responsibility to the state parties to preserve the Wadden Sea for future generations. It requires strengthening of information and awareness activities and the develo! pment of a sustainable tourism strategy for the World Heritage Site. In three presentations, examples were given how nature conservation and sustainable tourism can cooperate, for example at the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site at the south coast of England. These ideas were discussed and implemented into a concrete action plan for the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site with all stakeholders at an internal workshop on the following day.
New developments were also reported from Denmark: The Danish Wadden Sea has been designated as National Park which will officially be inaugurated in mid 2010. This will open the possibility to extend the World Heritage Site to the Danish Wadden Sea, as recommended by the World Heritage Committee.
In future, the Wadden Sea has to live up to its global responsibility which means also an increased cooperation with other sites especially along the Atlantic-East-African Waterbird Flyway, also a reco! mmendation by the World Heritage Committee. "The world is! watchin g the Wadden Sea" underlined Sidi Mohammed Ould Moine, director of the National Park Banc d’Argiun Nationalpark in Mauretania, which is an important stepping stone of birds migrating to the Wadden Sea.

Download of presentations at:
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/symposia/WaddenSeaDay2009/WaddenSeaDay2009.html

Next Trilateral Governmental Conference on Sylt in March 2010

The next Trilateral Governmental Conference on the Protection of the Wadden Sea will be held on the island of Sylt, 17- 19 March 2010 and will conclude the German presidency, which started at the 2005 Conference. It is the 11th Wadden Sea Conference which will be held since the first one in The Hague, The Netherlands, in 1978. The set up of this conference will be very similar to the 2005 Conference. During the open session of the Conference there will be an opportunity for stakeholders to engage with the ministers. Green organizations, scientists and the Wadden Sea Forum will present their views on how to best protect and manage the Wadden Sea and promote sustainable development of the Wadden Sea Region.
The Sylt Conference will also conclude a period of reforming the Cooperation. The evaluation of the Cooperation started after the 2005 Conference and resulted in the elaboration of a refreshed Joint Declaration in conjunction with revised governance arr! angements. It is planned that the ministers will sign the Joint Declaration at the Conference. The refreshed Declaration will not alter the spirit or legal status of the Cooperation but will modernize it and make it fit to meet new challenges.
At the Conference, it is also planned to adopt the refreshed Wadden Sea Plan and discuss the challenges that emerge from climate change and enhanced sea level rise, and the import of alien species.

Further information about the Evaluation Report
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/Evaluation/evaluation-report.html

Dutch Nature Restoration Plan

On 21 October 2008, the Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, the product organization for mussel culture (PO Mossel), the Dutch Society for the Protection of Birds, the Waddenvereniging, Stichting WAD and the Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment signed the covenant 'Transition for the Mussel Sector and Recovery of the Wadden Sea'. In this Covenant the parties agreed to collaborate on a transition process towards sustainable mussel fishery, in conjunction with a program for nature recovery.
The Plan of Execution was developed under the direction of a steering group, with a project group providing the scientific basis. This plan describes the first steps in a transition process for two related developments. One is intended to make mussel fishery sustainable, the other involves the planning and execution of! nature recovery. The target scenario for 2020 has been defined, and the first concrete steps to be taken up to 2011 set out. Provisional agreements have been made for the steps to be taken after 2011.
An in-depth interim evaluation will take place in 2014. As almost all the measures provided for in this Plan of Execution are innovative in character, the central motto is 'learning by doing'. Ecological, technical, economic and organizational expectations will be under constant review to ensure that they are in line with experiences and this will inform further planning. Lessons learnt in the first stages will then be used to decide further action.

2. Research & Monitoring

Dutch Wadden Academy

Following the presentation of its research agenda, 1-2 July 2009, the Wadden Academy is now elaborating the work programs for the research themes identified in the research agenda.

These are

• Wadden Past (Wadden Verleden), dealing with geology and paleohistory,
• Wadden Future (Wadden Toekomst), in which scenarios will be developed,
• Wadden Climate (Wadden Klimaat), which includes several aspects of climate change,
• Wadden Well-being (Wadden Welzijn), in which socio-economy is addressed,
• Wadden Monitoring, elaborated in the so-called Walter program (Wadden Sea long-term ecological research)
• Wadden Expert, providing proposals and work packages for the integration of the various disciplines;
• World Wadden (Wereld Wadden), covering international research themes.

The ecology program will be directly related to the Nature Development Program (Natuurherstelprogramma: NHP) that is currently being elaborated in the framework of the covenant on the transition towards sustainable mussel fisheries.

The "World Wadden" program consists of three parts
1. Trilateral research themes
2. Flyway research
3. Comparison with other tidal areas.

The Wadden Academy research agenda is being translated into English and will soon be distributed to research institutes in Germany and Denmark. It is the intention to organize a workshop in Hamburg on 4 December 2009 to discuss potential trilateral research themes, including financing options, as well as possibilities for cooperation at the trilateral level. This concerns themes in the fields of ecology, climate change, cultural history and socio-economy.

Link to: http://www.waddenacademie.knaw.nl/

3. Information & Education

Hallig-Adventures on Langeneß: Third summer camp for National Park children

Following the successful summer camps at the lighthouse Westerhever in 2007 and 2008, the International Wadden Sea School (IWSS) offered another week of "Wadden experience" for 26 children from the National Park region of Schleswig-Holstein. Again, the summer camp was organised in cooperation with the National Park administration and the local nature NGO Schutzstation Wattenmeer. In the "Year of the Biosphere Reserves", the camp took place on Hallig Langeneß, right in the middle of the Biosphere Reserve "Wadden Sea and Hallig Islands of Schleswig-Holstein".
With great fun, the children discovered the unique nature and culture of the hallig islands as part of their "own" Wadden Sea - a valuable basis for the identification with the National Park idea ! and protection of the Wadden Sea as an entity.

New Educational Resources: Dictionary, Legend Collection, Material Catalogue

A new edition of the "Wadden Sea Dictionary" has recently been published by the IWSS. Building up on the first edition of 2005, the dictionary compiles useful Wadden Sea vocabulary from "accumulate" to "zone" including a comprehensive collection of species names in English, German, Danish and Dutch and their respective translations. Whereas the previous edition separated general terms from species' name, the new version lists all entries in a single alphabetical order for an even easier handling. The dictionary is available as download for free on www.iwss.org.

For all lovers of Wadden Sea literature, the IWSS has compiled a collection of legends, stories and poems from the Wadden Sea coasts of Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands. "Sagenhaftes Wattenmeer" is currently available in German. Translations to English, Danish and Dutch are planned. Free download on the IWSS website www.iwss.org.

The new "IWSS Material Catalogue" provided an overview an all educational activities and material that has been developed by the IWSS so far, including resources for marketing for the IWSS network partners. Besides photos and short descriptions of the various material, the catalogue also lists information on the target group and where the material is available. The catalogue as well as the majority of resources can be downloaded for free on www.iwss.org.

The International Wadden Sea School (IWSS) is a trilateral information and environmental education program of the Trilateral Wadden Sea Cooperation. Further information at: www.iwss.org

4. New Publications

Wadden Sea World Heritage Site

"Weltnaturerbe Wattenmeer"
Authors Martin Stock, Ute Wilhelmsen
24 x 32 cm, 176 pages, 178 photos (partly full-page), hardback
ISBN 978-3-529-05321-4
€ 29.90
Wachholtz Verlag
September 2009

In summer 2009, the UNESCO designated the Wadden Sea as World Heritage Site. In this illustrated book, the most beautiful facets of the unique tidal landscape are captured in more than 170 fascinating large-sized photographs, underlining impressively the importance of the Wadden Sea as World Heritage Site. The photographs visualize the outstanding universal value of the World Heritage Site Wadden Sea: from the dynamic of the daily cycle of the tides, the morphological characteristic and high number of different habitats to the connected exceptionally high diversity of animals and plants.

In various themes the richness of the World Heritage Site is presented, but also its sensitivity. Ute Wilhelmsen’s expert texts and a number of quotations of famous authors are completing the pictures. They provide information for raising the viewer's awareness and the relevance of protection of this biotope, but also reflect the author's own enthusiasm for the Wadden Sea. Completed is this information by additional contributions of dedicated and visionary people accompanying the whole process from the idea to the inscription of the World Heritage Site Wadden Sea.

Already with the first few pictures, Martin Stock takes along the viewer into a unique world between the tides, where the mudflats meet the horizon during low tide and the traces of its inhabitants are exposed and visible over a long distance. The reader immerges into a world, which on the one hand radiates endless silence and on the other hand experiences a permanent flow and transformation through wind and water. The fascinating interplay of forces of nature and the impressive diversity of this unique nature area inspire the wish to experience the scene on your own by walking on a mudflat barefoot. This illustrated book enthuses scientists and connoisseurs as well as everybody else interested in this unique landscape.

5. Trilateral Meetings

JMBB-JMMB meeting
10 - 11 November, Hamburg, Germany

TWG 09/3
18 - 19 November,

TDG 09/2
26 November, Hamburg, Germany

TMAG 09/3
15 December 2009, Hamburg, Germany

IWSS Partner Workshop
15 - 17 December 2009, Lauwersoog, The Netherlands

A complete overview is at:
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/trilat/meetings/meetings.html

Meetings of the Wadden Sea Forum (WSF) are at:
http://www.waddensea-forum.org/calendar.html

6. Symposia & Workshops

Upcoming events

2 - 6 November 2009, Stralsund, Germany
Progress in Marine Conservation in Europe 2009
2nd International Conference, hosted by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN)
http://www.bfn.de/habitatmare/de/aktuelles-progress-in-marine-conservation-in-europe-2009.php

A complete list of upcoming events is at:
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/events/otherconf.html