Convention and nomination

World Heritage Convention

The overarching goal of the 1972 World Heritage Convention is the protection of cultural and natural properties of ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ (OUV) for mankind and to preserve it for future generation. It aims at the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of cultural and natural heritage of Outstanding Universal Value (OGL §7).

The Convention defines the kind of natural or cultural sites which can be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List. It sets out the duties of States Parties in identifying potential sites and their role in protecting and preserving them. By signing the Convention, each country pledges to conserve not only the World Heritage sites situated on its territory, but also to protect its national heritage.

Nomination of the Wadden Sea

In 2008, Germany and the Netherlands submitted the nomination dossier of the Dutch-German Wadden Sea as World Heritage site to the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO in Paris. At its 33th session in Seville in June 2009, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee inscribed the nominated area on the World Heritage List under the natural criteria (viii), (ix) and (x).

In 2011, the Committee approved adding the property of National Park Wadden Sea Hamburg to the designated area.

In 2013, the Trilateral Wadden Sea Cooperation submitted a nomination dossier to extent the existing designation with the Danish part of the Wadden Sea and an additional German offshore part. In June 2014, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee approved the extension. With this decision, the Wadden Sea as a whole became a World Heritage site.

With the inscription of the Wadden Sea on the World Heritage List, the World Heritage Committee forwarded the following to the Trilateral Wadden Sea Cooperation (TWSC)

Requests

• Prepare and implement a sustainable tourism strategy;
• Strengthen cooperation on management and research activities on the African Eurasian Flyways;
• the State Party of Denmark, in cooperation with the State Parties of the Netherlands and Germany, to prepare an implementation plan to enhance the conservation and management of the attributes of Outstanding Universal Value within the Danish National Park;
• Develop a single integrated management plan for the entire transboundary property (ongoing);
• submit, by 1 December 2016, a joint report on the state of conservation of the property.

Recommendations

• Implement a monitoring programme on invasive species associated with ballast water and aquaculture;
• Extend further the monitoring of impacts of fisheries activities within the existing and extended property (ongoing).