1. Policy & Management
Wadden Sea World Heritage - what's on?
 The communication of the
Wadden Sea as World Heritage has generated huge enthusiasm among and
broad support by the stakeholders at local as well as regional level.
The national park administrations initiated qualification programs,
extended the National Park Partnership Programs and the existing
exhibitions with World Heritage theme. In Lower Saxony, the national
park centers in Wilhelmshaven and Cuxhaven were converted into World
Heritage Visitor Centers. The tourism and marketing organizations
have developed various marketing activities on local and regional
level reflecting the high identification level of the World Heritage
status of the Wadden Sea and its recognition.
On the international level, an
updated joint information flyer was produced, which now includes the
Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park. The World Heritage information
columns (on photo) which have been developed by the German national
parks in Dutch and German (with English translation) are now being
placed in the regions.
The main focus of the World
Heritage work in 2011 was the joint "Story-Hunter Campaign"
and the start of the work on the Sustainable Tourism Strategy (see
below).
The framework of all these
activities is the common "Communication and Marketing Program
2010 - 2013" with its four main work fields on
information/awareness, environmental education, tourism and
international cooperation. This program and perspectives for future
joint activities will be discussed with representatives from
ministries, nature agencies, national park advisory boards, counties
and provinces, tourism organizations and entrepreneurs at the
workshop on 26 January 2012.
Further information about the
work activities can be found in the Annual Report 2010/2011
http://www.waddensea-worldheritage.org/index.php?id=56&L=0
Towards a Sustainable Tourism Strategy
 The UNESCO World Heritage
Committee requested Germany and The Netherlands to develop a
sustainable tourism strategy for the World Heritage that fully
considers the integrity and ecological requirements of the property
and provides a consistent approach to tourism operations in the area.
The Task Group Sustainable Tourism Strategy (TG-STS) with
representatives from ministries, nature agencies, national park,
tourism organizations and green NGOs was established to prepare such
a strategy, which will be submitted to the next Trilateral
Governmental Conference in 2013.
The agency "EUROPARC
Consulting" was contracted and started the work together with
the Task Group at a kick-off meeting in Bremen in October 2011. In a
first phase, an inventory and a baseline study is currently being
prepared to show perspectives how a joint strategy could be developed
which has an added value for all stakeholders. As the next step,
regional workshops in the Netherlands, Lower Saxony and
Schleswig-Holstein will be organized in spring 2012 to actively
involve regional and local partners in the preparation of the
strategy as early as possible.
Development of a trilateral Communication
Strategy
The communication strategy for
the Trilateral Wadden Sea Cooperation, that is currently being
developed, aims at providing a consistent and coordinated approach in
all communication activities among stakeholders on local, regional
and national level. Such systematic approach in Wadden Sea
communication will facilitate the cooperation among partners along
the Dutch-German-Danish coast, which is especially vital for protection
and conservation of the Wadden Sea area. The strategy will define
communication tools, channels and target audiences for the Trilateral
Cooperation, so that the stakeholders speak with one voice to
national and international communities.
The communication agency Papenfuss has been contracted to complete the
task of the communication strategy development, which is being
carried out with involvement of all responsible stakeholders in a
participatory process that considers the interests of all involved
parties.
Currently the first stage of
the communication strategy is being realized – "analysis and
research" – which includes interviews with key persons in
Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. The remaining interview
partners, who have not been available for personal interviews, will
be interviewed by telephone within the next weeks.
The definition of
communication goals will be provided by the end of the year based on
the analysis results, while the final communication strategy
including communication measures is expected to be delivered by July
2012, after the approval of the Wadden Sea Board.
Story Hunter Campaign in the Wadden Sea
World Heritage successfully concluded
 The first Wadden Sea wide
campaign to promote the Wadden Sea World Heritage amongst locals and
visitors was carried out in May-June 2011, in which people were asked
to share their personal story about the Wadden Sea.
In total the story-hunters
collected 360 stories from tourists and locals along the German-Dutch
Wadden Sea coastal line. 163 German and 53 Dutch most interesting
stories in the respective languages can be found at the campaign
page.
While the touring of the
Story-Hunters is over, the campaign materials (pins, posters,
stickers etc.) can be further used by all the partner organizations,
which supported and helped to implement the campaign. The best
stories have been distributed to the respective organizations
already, in future the collected stories are planned to be used in written
form. The campaign has become the first German-Dutch initiative to
promote the entire area of the Wadden Sea World Heritage site from
Texel to Sylt. It has succeeded to bring
together regional partners from all the Wadden Sea World Heritage
regions with a common goal to ensure protection and preservation of
the Wadden Sea. The campaign contributed greatly to the creation of
the emotional connection to the Wadden Sea and the creation of the
new Wadden Sea World Heritage community through authentic engagement
of locals and tourists.
The Story-Hunting idea has a
great potential and is planned to be continued in 2012. The
activities within the campaign-2012 will be defined together with the
Dutch and German partner organizations at the beginning of next year.
All the videos are available
at:
http://www.waddensea-worldheritage.org/223.0.html
2. Research &
Monitoring
Number of harbor seals increased in 2011
 The results of the coordinated
aerial counts of the harbour seals and grey
seals in the Dutch-German-Danish Wadden Sea have been collated and
assessed by the Trilateral Seal Expert Group which consists of seal
experts from all three countries. The total number of seals counted
during coordinated surveys in August was 24,118 animals, which is a
9% increase compared to 2010. The number of pups born in 2011 has
also grown. During the peak in pupping in June, 7,044 pups were
counted, which is 8% more than last year.
The total count of 24,118 harbour seals in the Wadden Sea was composed of
3,105 (699 pups) in Denmark, 8,493 (3,294 pups) in
Schleswig-Holstein, 4,699 (1,606 pups) in Lower Saxony and Hamburg,
and 7,821 (1,445 pups) in the Netherlands. The general increase is
however unevenly distributed, an extremely high increase in the Dutch
part whereas the numbers in Schleswig Holstein hardly grew and, in
the Lower Saxon part, they slightly dropped. The harbour
seals are counted when they rest on the sandbanks during low tide,
while some are in the water. It is estimated that the total number of
the seal population corrected with those in the water is around
35,500.
The number of grey seals has
also increased. The number of counted grey seals in the Wadden Sea
during the moult in March-April amounted to
3,312. Since 2007, the annual growth rate has been about 15% per
year. Together with the growing number of births, the steady increase
is presumably partly caused by immigration of the animals from the
UK.
Further information:
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/news/Seals/Annual-reports/seals2011.html
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/news/Seals/Annual-reports/Grey%20Seals/greyseals2011.html
Wadden Sea Day 2011 - Fish in the Wadden Sea
 On 25 August 2011, the sixth
annual Wadden Sea Day took place in Wilhelmshaven. Over 80
participants from the three Wadden Sea countries, the Netherlands,
Germany and Denmark, attended the scientific conference on "Fish
in the Wadden Sea - Exploring an Unknown World". With this
year's topic a very important issue for the Wadden Sea was addressed,
which often does not get enough attention.
The Wadden Sea is used by fish
as spawning, breeding and foraging grounds and serves as an
acclimation area and transit route for long-distance migrants from
the North Sea to their spawning grounds located in fresh water. The
conference further tended to highlight the ecological importance of
fish for the Wadden Sea and the importance of the Wadden Sea for its
fish inhabitants. The experts also discussed natural and human
factors that may influence the development of fish populations.
Overall, results of long-term
research projects indicated changes both in seasonal composition and
abundance of different fish populations in several Wadden Sea
regions. According to the assessments of these findings, some of
these changes might be induced by climatic change. Further detected
changing migration behaviors and resident times could cause a
mismatch in predator-prey-abundance in food webs. Based on these
results it will be possible to close certain knowledge gaps and
reveal the areas, where further research is required, e.g. fish
population dynamics and food web interactions. Furthermore, the
experts gave recommendations for future management issues concerning
fish in the Wadden Sea, like the restoration of habitats in order to
promote conditions for unhindered migration between the sea and
inland waters and improvement of the physical conditions in river
systems for diadromous fish.
Further information and a
download of the presentation are at:
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/symposia/WaddenSeaDay2011/WaddenSeaDay2011.html
Monitoring Workshop in Korea
 Since the establishment of the
"Memorandum of Understanding Wadden Sea – Korea" in 2009,
joint activities have been carried out focusing on three topics: 1)
information and education (cooperation info centers), 2) policy and
management (integrated ecosystem approach), and 3) monitoring and
research (migratory birds, benthos, monitoring strategies).
In September 2011, a two-day
joint workshop on monitoring and research (with focus on benthos)
followed by a two-day field excursion including laboratory work took
place at the University of Mopko in Korea.
It was organized by the Korean Ministry MLTM, the Korean Getbol Forum, the Province of Jeollanam-do
and the CWSS. The Wadden Sea delegation consisted of 8 scientists
from NOIZ (Texel), AWI (Sylt), the
University of Oldenburg, the Schleswig-Holstein State Agency LLUR,
the Lower Saxon National Park Administration, and the CWSS. The main
aim was to compare monitoring strategies and methods including remote
sensing, and to investigate the ecological similarities and
differences of tidal flats in Korea and the Wadden Sea regarding
biodiversity, possible impacts of climate change and invasive alien
species. In addition, management of oil spills and restoration of
mash areas were addressed.
Proposals for follow-up
activities on the scientific level (bilateral scientific projects or
exchange of PhD students), monitoring (application of remotes sensing
methods) and on site management (salt marsh restoration, exchange oil
spill experiences) were identified.
3. Information and
Education
The first IWSS Workshop within the new
structure
 The 11th International Wadden
Sea School Workshop and the first workshop under the coordination of
the Network Group Education will take place on Texel, 28-30 November,
hosted by Ecomare, the center for the
Wadden Sea and North Sea. It is expected to have overall 29
participants from regional national park houses and informational
centers along the coast including the members of the Network Group
Education to take part in the interactive workshop program and
several excursions to the island mudflats and a lighthouse.
The workshop program is
diverse: from discussion sessions and brainstorming sessions, e.g.
the international implementation of the originally German project
"Beach Explorer" to the presentation of the current Wadden
Sea World Heritage activities and a scientific report on trends in
bird numbers and human impact on Wadden Sea nature. Ecomare will share with the participants its
approach to environmental education and will invite them to a field
work demonstration in the mud.
For 8 years the IWSS workshop
has set its goal to provide an information exchange platform for
experts in environmental education from various Wadden Sea regions.
Apart from networking opportunities, the workshop has another
important mission: based on their extensive experience the
participants suggest and develop sustainable cross-border educational
products.
Barefoot in the mud: Korean Education
experts visit the Wadden Sea
 A Korean delegation with 6
representatives from the Korean Ministry MLTM and the tidal flat
information centers visited information centers in the National Park
Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea (Husum, Tönning,
Hooge, Sylt) and the Ecomare
Center on Texel from 4 - 12 October 2012. The visit was organized
with support by the Schutzstation Wattenmeer, WWF and Ecomare.
The aim of the visit was information exchange concerning how
strategies on tidal flat experience and education are being developed
and implemented in the Wadden Sea and the Korean tidal flats. The
main focus was on the development of eco-tourism that supports
sustainable regional development. The visit of the Korean colleagues
was conducted within the “Memorandum of Understanding Wadden
Sea-Korea” and the framework of the International Wadden Sea School
(IWSS).
Colleagues from the Schutzstation Wattenmeer,
among which the Korean student Jiin Ha, who
currently volunteers in the information center in Hörnum,
gave insight into practical Wadden Sea education out on the mudflats
- walking barefoot was truly a new experience for the delegation - as
well as into the planning and constructing of exhibitions. On Hallig Hooge, the group
got live impressions of a staff training course for conservation
volunteers and learned about the volunteering schemes "Freiwilliges ökologisches
Jahr" and "Bundesfreiwilligendienst".
After 4 days full of
impressions, information and vivid discussions on visitor information
and tidal flat education in Germany, the study visit continued with
exciting days on the island of Texel, The Netherlands. During the
official welcome in Ecomare the island’s major, Mrs
Francine Giskes, discussed with the
delegation touristic development, sustainable tourism and energy
issues. Professor Han Lindeboom from
IMARES/Wageningen University gave a lecture
about sustainable use and protection of the Dutch Wadden Sea. The
delegation visited several locations like the Maritime Museum, the
National Park, the lighthouse, the harbor etc. and discussed with the
managers and people involved to get an overview of the connection
there is made on Texel between nature, culture, history and tourism.
4. Publications
Neobiota in the Wadden Sea
 The Dutch Program
"Towards a Rich Wadden Sea" (PRW) and the Common Wadden Sea
Secretariat (CWSS) have commissioned an inventory study into policy
and research concerning invasive alien species in the international
Wadden Sea.
The aim was to collect state
of the art research regarding the following five topics related to
introductions of alien species in the international Wadden Sea:
- Ballast
Water,
- Aquaculture,
- Biofouling,
- Wadden
Sea Islands,
- Secondary introductions through natural
routes of dispersal.
For each of these topics
(developments in) policies and legal aspects, as well as monitoring
and research programs were addressed and main gaps and
recommendations identified. The report identified gaps in policies
for dealing with fouling of ships` hulls and other hard substrates
(such as offshore and harbor structures), which is considered to be
one of the main vectors for alien species introductions. It was also
concluded that there are gaps in monitoring and that an overall integrated
approach to dealing with invasive alien species is lacking. The
report recommends setting up a trilateral strategy based upon a
policy cycle consisting of prevention, early warning and monitoring,
assessment, decisions about management actions, management actions
and evaluation.
The report will serve as a
starting point for the development of a common trilateral strategy on
invasive alien species, as decided at the 11th Trilateral
Governmental Wadden Sea Conference (Sylt,
Germany March 2011).
The full report is available
at:
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/management/alien_species/alien_species.html
Data Inventory of the Tidal Basins in the
Trilateral Wadden Sea
 D.
Kraft, E.O. Folmer, J. Meyerdirks.
T.Stiehl. Programma Naar Een
Rijke Waddenzee, 43 pages.
The Dutch program
"towards a Rich Wadden Sea" (PRW) has commissioned a study
with the aim of investigating the relevance and feasibility of
comparing the tidal basins of the Wadden Sea. Such a comparison may
provide insight into the ways natural and anthropogenic factors
influence the conditions of tidal basins. The
study, carried
out between November 2010 and August 2011:
- presents an overview of the most urgent
policy questions and associated science topics,
- presents an overview of the main
parameter groups, needed to describe the physical, chemical, and
biological properties of tidal basins and their use by humans,
- assesses the quality and availability
of existing data, collected or compiled by the most
comprehensive monitoring programs in the Wadden Sea,
- proposes methodology by which
synoptic comparisons may be made.
On the basis of interviews
with scientists and experts in the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark,
it was concluded that the development of a tidal basin atlas was
generally considered a potentially important contribution to the
field and that a comparison of tidal basins on the basis of general
characteristics was considered helpful for various kinds of policy
and research topics.
Additionally, the main policy
questions, for which this approach could be useful, including related
scientific questions and associated parameters, were identified as
well as the availability of relevant data. Several recommendations on
how to use the tidal basin approach are presented. In order to
overcome the current problem of insufficient data coverage, it is
recommended that a selected set of indicative basins be used, that
models be applied, and that remote sensing data be integrated into
the approach.
The full report (English with
Dutch summary) is available at:
http://www.rijkewaddenzee.nl/rapporten-links/rapporten (kombergingsrapport)
5. Trilateral Meetings
6 - 7 December
Task Group Climate (TG-C)
13 December
Trilateral Data Handling Group (TDG)
20 December 2011
Task Group Sustainable Tourism Strategy (TG-STS)
19 January 2012
Task Group Shipping (TG-S)
23 - 24 January
Task Group Management (TG-M)
27 January 2012
Task Group World Heritage (TG-STS)
15 February 2012
Expert Network Group Fish
28 - 29 February 2012
Joint Monitoring Groups Breeding and Migratory Birds (JMBB/JMMB)
14 - 15 March 2012
Wadden Sea Board (WSB-5)
29 March 2012
Task Group Shipping (TG-S)
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
8 - 9 December
7th Wadden
Academy Symposium
Wadden Academy
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/symposia/symp.html
28-30 November
11th
International Wadden Sea School Workshop
Texel, the Netherlands
A complete list of upcoming
events is at:
http://www.waddensea-secretariat.org/news/events/otherconf.html
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