Wadden Sea (Lower Saxony)

The Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park was declared in 1986 and protects some 3,450 km² of the North Sea coast, between the mouths of the Ems and the Elbe, taking in the East Frisian Islands and the extensive tidal flats that separate them from the mainland.

The Wadden Sea is a singular ecosystem because of its dynamics: with every tide, enormous expanses of seabed are laid bare and covered again, in a cycle that sustains an extremely high biological productivity. The mudflats are a nursery for fish and a larder for millions of birds, which use the area for resting, moulting and feeding on the East Atlantic flyway. At only 7,500 years old, it is a very young ecosystem in geological terms and one in constant transformation.

It was recognised as a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1992 and has a striking administrative peculiarity: with a single registered inhabitant, it is the least populated biosphere reserve in Germany. Behind the dykes lies a cultural landscape shaped by people over centuries, whose incorporation as a development zone of the reserve has been under discussion for years. In 2009 the Wadden Sea was inscribed on the World Heritage List along with the Dutch and Schleswig-Holstein sectors.