At its 35th meeting in Paris the UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided to extend the existing German-Dutch World Heritage area "Wadden Sea" to include Hamburg's National Park. This extension completes the German part of the transboundary World Heritage site.
The German and Dutch parts of the Wadden Sea with Germany's Wadden Sea National Parks in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein were already included in the World Heritage List in June 2009. The Wadden Sea is one of the largest wetland areas in the world; a unique habitat where 10 to 12 million migratory birds stop over each year. It is also an extraordinarily dynamic natural area. Nowhere else in the world has such a diverse landscape developed under the influence of the tides, and it is still constantly changing today. It provides habitats for around 10,000 species.
The Wadden Sea World Heritage area stretches for 400 kilometres along the German-Dutch coastline and covers a range of 10,000 square kilometres. The inscription of the Wadden Sea in the World Heritage List is also recognition of the high level of protection that Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark have jointly been ensuring for years within the framework of their trilateral government cooperation.