The Wadden Sea World Heritage Site
Since June 2009, the Wadden Sea has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This puts the Wadden Sea on an equal footing with world-famous nature reserves such as Yellowstone in the United States, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. At the cradle of this success is the many years of good cooperation between the Wadden Sea countries.

What is World Heritage?
World Heritage is a monument, area or landscape with a natural and/or cultural-historical value that is unique in the world. UNESCO defines World Heritage as ‘a special, universal value, it must be irreplaceable, unique and considered to be the property of the world’. The granting of World Heritage status is a recognition for the area, but does not offer any additional legal protection.

The Wadden Sea is unique
The Wadden Sea is a recognised biological ecosystem that can only be found on the Dutch-German-Danish North Sea coast. On the Wadden Sea, tides alternate every six hours, changing the landscape from one moment to the next. An extensive system of channels is alternated with dry sandflats. This variety of landscapes makes the Wadden Sea a unique habitat for more than 10,000 often rare plant and animal species, which produces an exceptionally large food wealth. It is also an indispensable stopover for millions of birds during their migrations. (source: www.wadden.nl)