Today at its 38th session in Doha, Qatar, the World Heritage Committee included the Danish Wadden Sea and other coastal areas of the Wadden Sea of Lower Saxony National Park in the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site, which was inscribed in 2009. This means that the entire Wadden Sea extending from the Netherlands through Germany as far as the Danish North Sea coast has now been recognised as a World Natural Heritage Site.
Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks commented: "I am delighted to see that now, 5 years after the German-Dutch Wadden Sea was listed as a World Heritage Site, this valuable ecosystem has been entirely inscribed on the World Heritage List. Minister Hendricks added "The Wadden Sea is one of the world's most fascinating landscapes and now stands on a par with the Grand Canyon in the US, the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia and the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania."
"The world's largest tidal flat area provides habitats for a unique range of species that merit protection. The area's recognition as a World Natural Heritage Site is a huge achievement for all those involved locally who have worked long and hard for this and whom I would personally like to congratulate and thank. This is also a great achievement for the Trilateral Wadden Sea Cooperation, which has been working hard for over three decades to protect the Wadden Sea" added Minister Hendricks.
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 National Park in Hamburg was added to the list in 2011. With the enlargement to incorporate the Wadden Sea National Park in Denmark and parts of the Wadden Sea of Lower Saxony. the World Natural Heritage Site now covers an area of approximately 11,5000 square kilometres. The Wadden Sea is one of the largest wetland areas in the world, where 10 to 12 million migratory birds stop over each year. It provides habitats for around 10,000 animal and plant species.