The Danish Wadden Sea Closer to the UNESCO List
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The Danish Wadden Sea, a coastal range of unique and world-class natural beauty, is moving a step closer to a place on UNESCO’s list of the World Heritage Sites, which includes the Pyramids of Egypt and the Illulissat Icefjord in Greenland.
The Danish Minister for Culture Marianne Jelved has now signed the application to persuade the UN’s organisation for culture and education, UNESCO, that the Danish Wadden Sea is worthy of a place on the list of the World’s unique cultural and natural Heritage Sites.
The coast of the Wadden Sea stretches out for over 500 kilometres from Blåvands Huk in Jutland to Den Helder in the Netherlands. The German and Dutch parts of the Wadden Sea were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2009.
At the inscription, the World Heritage Committee, which is responsible for the designation of world heritage sites, encouraged the countries along the Wadden Sea to prepare a common application to include the Danish part.
”The Wadden Sea has a unique and diverse nature in which many thousands of plant and animal species thrive. With the application to Unesco’s list of world heritage sites, we are taking a step towards securing a piece of exceptional Danish nature. The application is the result of a broad collaboration among the Danish Agency for Culture, the Danish Nature Agency, the municipalities along the Wadden Sea, and German and Dutch authorities – and thus has backing from the entire area,” says Minister for Culture Marianne Jelved.
Experience and knowledge The Wadden Sea offers distinctive natural experiences and is a treasure trove of knowledge for biologists, geologists, historians, and others, who take readings of the flora and fauna in the dynamic landscape and its influence on cultural environments.
The Wadden Sea is the World’s largest, continuous tidewater system, and plant and animal life has developed in manifold ways. More than 10,000 plant and animal species have lived here, and millions of migratory birds use the Wadden Sea as an indispensable stopover for provisioning.
”If the Wadden Sea meets with Unesco’s approval, there will be a fantastic opportunity to develop green tourism even more. We, along with the municipalities and the Wadden Sea National Park, will be able to exploit the potential fully,” says the Danish Minister for the Environment, Ida Auken.
The decision to accept the Wadden Sea on UNESCO’s world heritage list will be made in June 2014.
Contact:
Press officer, Peter Kronsted, The Danish Agency for Culture, phone +45 33 74 51 15 pkr@kulturstyrelsen.dk
