Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park

Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park
Location:	Schleswig-Holstein , Germany
Next city:	Westerland, Husum, Tönning, Heide.
Surface:	441,500 ha
Founding:	October 1, 1985
Address:	Website of the National Park; Schlossgarten 1 ; 25382 Tönning
	Aerial view with Trischen, Eiderstedt and the southern North Frisian outer sands
	i2 i3 i6

The Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park is a national park in the Schleswig-Holstein part of the Wadden Sea of the North Sea . The state parliament established it with the National Park Act of July 22, 1985 on October 1, 1985 and significantly expanded it in 1999. Together with the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park , the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park and parts of the Elbe estuary that are not subject to nature protection, it forms the German part of the Wadden Sea .

The national park extends from the German-Danish maritime border in the north to the mouth of the Elbe in the south. In the North Frisian part, it includes the mudflats around the Geestkern and Marschen islands and Halligen . There the mudflats are sometimes 40 kilometers wide. Farther south are mud flats, in which there are mainly larger sandbanks . In addition to the plants and animals that are typical of the entire Wadden Sea of the North Sea , there are particularly many porpoises , shelduck and seaweed in the Schleswig-Holstein part .

With an area of 4410 km² it is by far the largest national park in Germany and the largest national park between the North Cape and Sicily. 68% are underwater and 30% periodically fall dry. Most of the land consists of salt marshes . Since 1990 the national park together with the North Frisian Halligen has formed the UNESCO-recognized Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea and Halligen biosphere reserve . Together with the Lower Saxony and Dutch Wadden Sea regions, the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009 . The Hamburg Wadden Sea has been part of this association since 2011 and the Danish Vadehavet National Park since 2014 .

geography

National park area

Map of the national park with marked protection zones

The national park covers the Schleswig-Holstein coastal area of the North Sea from the Danish border in the north to the mouth of the Elbe in the south. In the northern area (up to about Amrum ) the national park border runs along the twelve-mile line , south of it about the three- mile line . On the land side, it runs in the Wadden Sea 150 meters off the coast. Sea dikes and the immediate foreland are not part of the national park, and bathing beaches are also largely excluded from the protected area. The inhabited areas in the sea are also excluded from the national park, including the five German North Frisian Islands and the large Halligen : Langeneß , Hooge , Gröde , Oland and Nordstrandischmoor . Part of the national park are uninhabited islands, halligen and sandbanks such as Trischen , Blauort or the North Frisian Outer Sands . According to the structure of the main natural spatial units of Germany , the area of the national park belongs to the unit "Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea, Islands and Halligen" in the group Schleswig-Holstein Marshes and to the main unit German Bight .

The national park can be divided into two areas. In the north between the Danish border and the Eiderstedt peninsula is the North Frisian part, on the south coast of Eiderstedt up to the mouth of the Elbe the Dithmarscher part. The North Frisian Wadden Sea belongs together with the Danish Wadden Sea to the northern Wadden Sea of the North Sea. It is shielded from the open sea by the North Frisian islands and Halligen. The islands emerged mainly from mainland areas that were separated from the land due to catastrophic floods . The wadden area is more protected, the transition between the tidal flats and the sea is often clearer, as the first is on the east side of the large islands, the second on the west. There are no large estuaries, the tide difference is relatively small at less than two meters. Geest cliffs from the Ice Ages can only be found in the northern Wadden Sea , so that here on the coasts there are also the greatest height differences in the very flat area. The Dithmarscher part and the south coast of Eiderstedt between the Elbe and Eider estuaries form part of the central Wadden Sea. A tidal range of over three meters largely prevents the creation of islands. Some sandbanks rise from the sea, only Trischen reaches enough height and thus security against storm surges to allow vegetation sensitive to salt water. Compared to the geologically similar East Frisian Islands of the southern Wadden Sea, Trischen is much smaller and younger. All attempts by human inhabitants to fortify the island have failed. Due to several large estuaries , the salinity in the central Wadden Sea is lower than in the rest of the Wadden Sea and is subject to greater fluctuations.

Protection zones of the national park

The national park is divided into two zones, which correspond to different levels of protection. Zone 1 forms the core area of the protected area. The 162,000 ha zone covers a good third of the national park. It consists of twelve larger spatial units, each with salt marshes , silt, mixed and sand mud flats , shallow and deep areas permanently under water ( sublittoral ) and tidal creeks . In addition, there are smaller units around particularly sensitive areas such as seal banks or the breeding colonies of sea bird species, places where many migratory birds molt, and geomorphologically significant areas with almost natural surface structures. Zone 1 is principally closed to the public; the only exceptions are mudflat areas directly adjacent to the coast for mudflat hikers, routes for guided mudflat hikes and fishing. To the south of Hindenburgdamm on the land side of Sylt , human use is completely excluded within protection zone 1 (“zero-use zone”). This covers 12,500 hectares, of which around 3,500 hectares are permanently covered by water.

Zone 2 forms a so-called "buffer zone" around Zone 1, in which sustainable use is made possible. In protection zone 2, the small whale sanctuary is located west of the Sylt coast, which has a size of 124,000 ha. This area is an important breeding area for porpoises , whose North Sea population has declined by 90% in the 20th century. While uses such as swimming, sailing or traditional shrimp fishing are still possible in the area, it is intended to prevent international industrial and gillnet fishing, jet skis, ship speeds over twelve knots, military activities and resource exploitation (sand, gravel, gas or oil).

Water, land and mudflats

Wadden Sea when the sun is low

The North Sea coast is flat; the sea floor only drops a few centimeters per kilometer. Twice a day the tide carries sand, clay and silt into the Wadden Sea area. The tidal range in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea is between 1.5 and 3.7 meters, increasing from north to south: the smallest tide differences are on Sylt's north coast, the highest in southern Dithmarschen. Everywhere in the Wadden Sea, the time it takes for the water to flow is only about 85% of the time it takes for the water to run off again. The current at the water inlet is therefore stronger and the ebb tide does not have the power to carry away the sediments washed up by the flood.

Over two thirds of the area of the national park is taken up by areas that are constantly under water ( sublittoral ), 30% of the mud flats that are dry at low tide and flooded at high tide ( eulitoral ). The rest are land areas ( supralitoral ) that are only flooded under special circumstances. The water areas consist on the one hand of the seaward part of the park, on the other hand of larger tidal currents such as the Lister Tief , the Heverstrom , the Purrenstrom , the Wesselburener Loch or the Piep . Directly in front of the mudflats there is a constant strong current from south to north, which comes from the southern North Sea and continues to the Norwegian channel . Since the current carries the estuarine waters of large European rivers such as the Rhine or Elbe with it, the salinity of 20–30 psu is below that of the sea, but still above that of estuaries.

Since inhabited areas are not part of the national park, the land areas consist almost exclusively of salt marshes , with a small remainder of sandbanks and dunes . The salt marshes take up more than 10,000 hectares, of which 70% were created on the mainland under the protection of lahnungen , 10% are on the leeward sides of the islands and the rest has formed around the Halligen. Between 1988 and 2001 the area of the salt marshes expanded by around 700 ha. Largely natural, unused salt marshes are found primarily in front of the islands, on the mainland this only occurs in front of Schobüll and Sankt Peter-Ording .

As in the entire Wadden Sea, the climate is Atlantic, always humid and warm-temperate. Strong westerly wind drift and the heat storage capacity are determining factors, which ensures frequent strong winds, but has a balancing effect on the temperatures, so that the area has cool summers (July: 14.5 ° C) and mild winters (January: 1.8 ° C) learns.

Flora and fauna

Lugworm pile in the Wadden Sea

See also Wadden Sea (North Sea)

Salt water, the change between ebb and flow, and strong winds with a tendency to storm shape the environmental conditions in the Wadden Sea. The creatures that can establish themselves here permanently include a few marine animals, particularly well-developed specialists. The area serves fish as well as marine mammals primarily as a nursery; In addition to numerous breeding birds, huge flocks of migratory birds use the tidal flats in spring and autumn as a resting area to refresh their food reserves. In the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea there are around 700 plant and 2,500 animal species. 250 of the animal species are endemic to the Wadden Sea .

plants

Salt marshes form the predominant vegetation of the national park

Seagrasses are the only flowering plants in the Wadden Sea that grow underwater. After most of the seaweeds in the Atlantic fell victim to an epidemic around 1930, they have not recovered from it in the entire Wadden Sea. They are found almost exclusively in northern Schleswig-Holstein, where they cover around 6,000 hectares, compared to 705 hectares in Lower Saxony or 130 in the Netherlands. They represent the habitat for numerous aquatic creatures and serve, for example, the shelduck as an important source of food. At least in the North Frisian part, contrary to the global trend, the seaweeds seem to continue to spread in recent years, so that at maximum extent in August they cover up to 13% of the North Frisian Wadden Sea.

On the salt marshes , which are flooded by sea water around ten to 250 times a year, individual zones are formed, depending on how heavy the salt load is in an individual section. A total of around 50 types of flowering plants can be found on the salt meadows and the adjacent brackish meadows. The lowest and closest to the lake is the Queller Zone, which is flooded with almost every high tide, followed by the Andel Zone, and the highest and closest to land is the Red Fescue Zone.

In the samphire zone only samphire and silt grass can cope with the constant flooding. The Andel zone , which is achieved even at each spring tide and other elevated water levels, characterizes the eponymous Andel grass as well as salt-tolerant species such as beach aster , beach-Sode , Common Lilac beach and wedge reporting . The red fescue zone, named after the salt marsh red fescue , is only flooded in rare exceptional cases. Species richness increased significantly, particularly striking species are Tausendgüldenkräuter ( beach-centaury , Small centaury , Centaurium erythraea ), Red tooth consolation , beach plantain and Lückensegge .

Finally, there are also some plants on the dunes, but due to the extreme conditions there mostly only the species-poor dune heather, only in rain-rich dune valleys does the population of cotton grass , sundew and lung gentian resemble a bog.

Animals

Mammals

Seals are the most popular motifs in the iconography of the Wadden Sea. They use it as a relaxation room, also to raise their young. When hunting, they swim in the open sea and switch between the positions of the Wadden Sea and Heligoland.

The common porpoise has a special concentration on the national park area and the adjoining areas to the sea . Seals and smaller numbers of gray seals can be seen on the sandbanks throughout the Wadden Sea . In 1988 and 2002 about half of the distemper seal population fell victim. According to counts by the national park administration, around 13,000 seals lived in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea in 2017, around a third of them were born in the same year. During the August counts, around a third of the seals are in the water, so the counting results are corrected accordingly.

The gray seal population consists of around 140 animals, which are mainly found near the Jungnamesand and the Knobsands off Amrum.

insects

In the national park, insects occur almost exclusively on the salt marshes, which, however, serve as a habitat for a highly specialized community of species. Around half of all 2,000 species known in the salt marshes of the national park occur exclusively in natural or near-natural salt marshes. To protect them from the salt water, many animals spend their larval stage either inside a plant or in the ground. As food, they prefer parts of the plant that have already excreted the salt water. Relatively well-known examples of this are the Halligflieder-shrew-weevil or the beach -plantain-gall weevil ( Mecinus collaris ), which live in the respective plants. The magnificent salt beetle ( Bledius spectabilis ), on the other hand, digs its way into a pipe in the mud flats.

Sea lavender is used by the caterpillar of the rare salt marsh meadows ( Scopula emutaria ) as a forage plant, which in Germany can only be reliably detected in the coastal area of the North Sea islands Amrum and Sylt.

Birds

The bird life in the national park is essentially comparable to that of other mud flats. With ten million migratory birds present in spring and autumn, the Danish-German-Dutch Wadden Sea is then the most bird-rich area in Europe. The nutrient-rich area is a regular resting place for migratory birds on Atlantic routes. Since the Wadden Sea is constantly changing and changing, the effects of the national park are difficult to assess. Overall, however, only three species increased in the ten years between 1994 and 2004 ( spoonbill , cormorant and ringed plover ), while 18 species continued to decline. These include typical Wadden Sea species with a large distribution such as shelduck , green thigh , curlew , black-headed gull , black- backed gull , oystercatcher , avocet and brent goose .

The decline primarily affects typical and comparatively large numbers of people living in the tidal flats, possibly because trawling is damaging their food sources. Species that are actually more likely to be found inland have been particularly successful in recent years. They prefer large, newly diked areas that are largely cut off from salt water ( Beltringharder Koog , Hauke-Haien-Koog , Speicherkoog , Rickelsbüller Koog ) as resting and breeding areas rich in freshwater. Since 2000 there have also been a number of persistent breeding pairs of white- tailed eagles in some areas of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea.

The north-western European shelduck population, numbering around 180,000 birds, spends its moulting season between July and September in the Wadden Sea, mostly on and around the protected island of Trischen . This means that over 80% of the entire Northwest European population can be found there. This phenomenon of the mass moult in the shelduck is unique in the world.

Around 200,000 eider ducks spend their moulting season here; around 1000 pairs of eider ducks use the tidal flats of the North Sea as a breeding area. Most of them breed on the island of Amrum . The barnacle geese reach large populations with over 60,000 and the brent geese with 84,000, almost exclusively on Halligen and islands. In the case of the barnacle goose, it can also be seen that it is steadily increasing its length of stay in the Wadden Sea. In front of the North Frisian Islands, at water depths between two and ten meters, scoter ducks reach internationally significant populations.

Fish, mussels, crustaceans

Barnacles (near Sylt)

The cockle and the blue mussel are typical mussels of the Wadden Sea . While cockles are almost ubiquitous, wild mussels are far less common than in the more southerly Wadden Sea and are increasingly suffering from the spread of the Pacific oyster, which in turn benefits from the warmer winters. Various neobiota also shape the picture. The Vikings probably brought the sand gape mussel with them from America, the American drill mussel came at the end of the 19th century, the American scabbard mussel in 1976.

Among the crustaceans, the sea crab is particularly important, consuming around ten percent of the biomass in the Wadden Sea. The North Sea shrimp and the barnacle are also numerous . Besides the seal, the most famous animal in the Wadden area is the lugworm . Only small fish species such as eel mother , sand goby ( Pomatoschistus minutus ) and sea scorpion are at home in the mudflats . Numerous other species use the oxygen and nutrient-rich Wadden Sea, which is protected from predatory fish, as a spawning ground. Flatfish such as plaice are particularly important here, but also common garfish ( Belone belone ), which are active in the coastal waters of the Eastern Atlantic.

The National Park

history

Sylt-Nord, together with the Morsum cliff, has been the oldest nature reserve in Schleswig-Holstein since 1923 and an early forerunner of nature conservation in the Wadden Sea

The Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea was a target of nature conservation relatively early on. Individual nature reserves in the area have existed since the 1920s, the first plans to protect the entire Wadden Sea since the 1960s. Nevertheless, the award as a national park in 1985 and the expansion in 1999 only took place amid considerable political disputes, which led to the responsible minister being thrown eggs and a crab cutter demonstration in the Kiel Fjord .

prehistory

Nature conservation efforts in the Wadden Sea have existed since the first half of the 20th century. The two oldest nature reserves in Schleswig-Holstein, Sylt-Nord and Morsum-Kliff , founded in 1923, are located on the island of Sylt in the Wadden Sea. Until 1940 there were eleven nature reserves in North Frisia, especially in the vicinity of the mudflats. Even without the national park, the district still has the most nature reserves with the largest area in Schleswig-Holstein. A bird keeper from the Association for Bird Protection (now NABU) has been settling in Trischen since 1927 , and the mudflat north of the Hindenburg dam has been a nature reserve since 1937 .

For a long time, nature conservation in the Wadden Sea concentrated on individual species and in particular bird protection played an important role, but over time a more comprehensive approach to biotope protection became established . The first demands to protect the Wadden Sea as a whole began in the 1960s. In 1963 the Wadden Sea Conservation Station raised the demand for a "large Halligmeer protected area". In 1972, two years after the Bavarian Forest National Park was founded, the State Hunting Association first used the term national park to refer to the Wadden Sea. In 1973 the Ministry of Agriculture presented a draft law under Ernst Engelbrecht-Greve (CDU), but withdrew it in 1974 due to vehement opposition in the affected regions. In the same year, however, the North Frisian Wadden Sea nature reserve was established. The first international scientific conferences on the protection of the Wadden Sea took place in 1975, and the first trilateral intergovernmental conference with German, Dutch and Danish participants took place in 1978. In 1982 the governments of the neighboring countries drafted the “Joint Declaration on the Protection of the Wadden Sea” in The Hague . In the same year, the NSG North Frisian Wadden Sea was expanded and now comprised 136,570 hectares, according to other information 139,880 hectares.

After Prime Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg (CDU) did not dare to approach the national park issue again after the first failed attempt, the cabinet Uwe Barschel (CDU) with Agriculture Minister Günter Flessner (CDU) began a new approach in the year of taking office in 1982. Resounded resistance broke out again on the west coast, Dithmarscher and Friesen invoked their centuries-old desire for freedom and resistance to outside interference in their areas. This time, however, the government was not impressed enough.

First National Park Act 1985

Occasionally there are still old signs of protest against the national park

The then CDU government founded the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park as the third national park in Germany. He followed the Bavarian Forest and the Berchtesgaden National Park .

Finally, in July 1985, the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament passed the National Park Act, which provided for a 272,000 hectare national park with three different protection zones. It began in the Wadden Sea 150 meters from the coastline and reached a depth of five to ten meters. The law came into force on October 1, 1985. The 150-meter-wide strips on the coast continue to belong to the North Frisian Wadden Sea NSG, which otherwise became part of the national park area.

Lower Saxony followed suit in 1986 and Hamburg in 1990 . The Danish and Dutch Wadden Sea are subject to different nature conservation measures, but in October 2010 the Danish Wadden Sea also became a national park .

The National Park Act states:

The establishment of the national park serves to protect the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea and to preserve its special character, beauty and originality. Its species-rich flora and fauna are to be preserved and the natural processes to run as undisturbed as possible. Any interests in use are to be weighed fairly against the protective purpose in general and in individual cases.

In particular, the local people felt ignored - the Wadden Sea in its present form was only created in centuries by the local people, who had developed a particularly pronounced attitude of independence and autonomy as a result. They felt that the national park should be managed directly from the "distant Kiel" as an external control by politicians who had neither direct experience with local agriculture, fishing, nor with the danger of storm surges.

But the opposition and nature conservation associations were also rather skeptical of the new national park. They felt the regulations were insufficient and worried that the additional tourists that the national park should attract would destroy more than the park itself could protect in this form.

Synthesis report, discussion and protests

With the attempt to declare the Wadden Sea east of Keitum / Sylt as a zero-use zone, the conservationists could not prevail against the fishermen.

The second National Park Act originated in the approximately 800-page "Synthesis Report / Wadden Sea Ecosystem Research - Basics for a National Park Plan" from 1996. The state government only had scientists carry out extensive monitoring of the previous national park for seven years and, based on these results, develop various proposals for changes in the National Park Act and compile them in the report. This report, initiated by Environment Minister Berndt Heydemann (non-party), was discussed for about two years in over 200 local meetings and at 15 meetings of the National Park Board of Trustees.

As a result, the Board of Trustees and the neighboring districts issued extensive statements in 1998. The state cabinet officially discussed the report for the first time at the end of 1998, and the state parliament began reading the law in mid-1999 in order to pass it on October 31, 1999. Due to minor amendments, it came into force on December 29, 1999.

The synthesis report included expanding the area of the park from 273,000 to 349,000 hectares. The Lister Tief (near Sylt, north of Hindenburgdamm) and the Wesselburener Loch (near the mouth of the Eider) should be designated as zero-use zones. In the southern Dithmarscher Wadden Sea , all recreational shipping should be prohibited during the moulting of the shelduck from July to September.

While in the politically representative area in particular the North Frisian District Administrator Olaf Bastian (CDU) stood up as a resolute opponent of an expansion of the national park and called for administration by the districts, there were also broader protests on the west coast. 1,000 people protested in Büsum, particularly dike shepherds and shrimp fishermen. On August 26, 1999, the latter drove in a convoy through the Kiel Canal with 143 shrimp cutters to protest in front of the state parliament on the Kiel Fjord while reading the law . At an event in Tönning, residents threw eggs at the Green Environment Minister, Rainder Steenblock, who had now come into office . In November 1999, shortly before the law was passed, 160 warning fires burned along the entire west coast of the state.

There were protests in particular about the number and size of the zero-use zones, in which fishing is not allowed, and the landside border of the park. This should move from the 150-meter strip directly to the outer edge of the dykes so that salt marshes and especially bathing beaches would also become part of the park.

Second National Park Act 1999

The Second National Park Act created, among other things, a so-called whale sanctuary to protect the common porpoise

Finally, the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament changed the law on December 17, 1999. The parliament expanded the protective purpose of the most undisturbed flow of natural processes , the national park should now serve as a habitat for the naturally occurring animal and plant species in order to preserve these species and the life relationships existing in the habitats. Nevertheless, coastal protection continues to take precedence over nature conservation; the national park should not impair the interests and conventional uses of the residents and should explicitly have positive effects on tourism and the reputation of the region .

The law expanded the national park area almost exclusively towards the sea. The land border remained 150 meters from the dike, contrary to initial planning, with the exception of an area in the municipality of St. Peter-Ording. It introduced a zero-use zone, which, however, lies south of the Hindenburg dam - hardly used by fishermen, but also less ecologically valuable than Lister Tief or Wesselburener Loch. To this end, the law introduced the whale sanctuary and finally banned hunting in the park, as well as restricting mussel fishing. The law considerably enlarged protection zone 1, especially around the areas of the tidal flats, and simplified the zone system by abolishing protection zone 3. Part-time fishing was now also allowed in Zone 1. Pleasure boaters and fishermen had already agreed with the state government before the law to avoid the moulting areas of the shelduck. The law also provided for a speed limit for ships and boats throughout the national park.

The law brought about numerous platforms, working groups and cooperative projects, on the one hand to better involve the local population and users, but on the other hand also to channel criticism into non-public channels, so that the public debate about the park has been significant since 1999 has decreased.

administration

One of the tasks of the national park administration is to provide information to the public

The National Park Administration is the responsible nature conservation authority for the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park. The seat of the National Park Administration has been in Tönning since the National Park was founded . According to the National Park Act, the tasks of the national park administration include in particular 1. the operation of public relations work in and about the national park and its visitor management, 2. the implementation and coordination of ecological monitoring and the scientific basis for the further nature conservation planning of the national park and 3. the To regulate the supervision of the national park through recognized nature conservation organizations .

The National Park was administered until 2007 by the National Park Office in Tönning, which was directly subordinate to the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry for Nature, Environment and Regional Development. Since January 1, 2008, the National Park Administration has been part of the newly established State Office for Coastal Protection, National Park and Marine Protection Schleswig-Holstein , based in Husum . The aim is to coordinate the overlapping areas of responsibility of coastal protection , previously overseen by the Office for Rural Areas (ALR), and the national park in one authority. Head of Division 3, National Park and Marine Protection , at LKN is Dr. Detlef Hansen.

Hopes, especially again from the then District Administrator Bastian, to finally localize the national park and thus open it directly to the influence of the local people, opposed nature conservation associations, other parties and, ultimately, Agriculture and Environment Minister Christian von Boetticher (CDU).

Although the national park is regionally limited to the two districts of Dithmarschen and North Friesland and there are 69 communities bordering the national park, the state of Schleswig-Holstein justifies its responsibility with the high efficiency, uniform administrative practice and the minimal influence of local special interests in the administration. Furthermore, the majority of the national park area is community-free area , for which the neighboring communities have no administrative responsibility. However, the districts and municipalities are still involved via advisory boards of trustees. The districts have a greater influence on the islands and halligen as well as the 150 meter wide coastal strip, which do not belong to the national park, but still have a strong influence on it.

99.9% of the national park area is publicly owned. 99% of this is owned by the Federal Republic of Germany, the rest is owned by the State of Schleswig-Holstein.

The national park administration has 85 employees, some of them part-time, and has an annual budget of around seven million euros. With the incorporation of the national park administration into the 'State Office for Coastal Protection, National Park and Marine Protection ', the National Park Service was reassigned to the national park administration in 2008. Thus, all work areas related to the national park are under one responsibility.

In addition, the National Park Administration tries to defuse conflicts and work more efficiently by concluding agreements with user groups and those affected to regulate the details of the use of the National Park. It negotiates contracts with fishermen, the sports boat association, mudflat guides, operators of excursion boats, but also individual communities such as Sankt Peter-Ording , Westerhever or the Hamburg Hallig .

Other protective measures

Since 1987, the Danish, German and Dutch governments have a common Wadden Sea Secretariat (Common Wadden Sea Secretariat - CWSS) in Wilhelmshaven , which is to coordinate the safeguards. Since 1990, the national park areas and five Halligen in the national park have also had the status of a biosphere reserve ( Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea Biosphere Reserve ). The waterways in the area are governed by federal law. The current law on water traffic in the Wadden Sea dates back to 1997, among other things, it regulates speed limits and the temporary closure of entire sea areas.

Internationally, the entire national park is subject to the international Ramsar Convention for the Protection of Wetlands. The area has also been recognized as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) since 2002 . The area is subject to a trilateral special agreement for the protection of seals and for the protection of small whales ( ASCOBANS ), as well as the agreement for the conservation of African-Eurasian migratory water birds ( AEWA ). The area is designated as a special protection zone within the meaning of the Birds Directive of the European Community (79/409 / EEC) as well as a protected area within the meaning of the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive and thus part of the Europe-wide, coherent network of protected areas Natura 2000 . As part of Directive 2008/56 / EC (Marine Strategy Framework Directive) , which applies to most of the Wadden Sea National Park, the ecological status of the Wadden Sea must be maintained and improved. In terms of the Water Framework Directive, part of the national park belongs to the Eider River Basin District , another part in the Elbe estuary belongs to the Elbe FGE . The seals are to be protected by the agreement for the conservation of seals in the Wadden Sea, which came into force in 1991 .

The area of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea is since 26 June 2009, together with the Dutch and Lower Saxony Wadden Sea as a World Natural Heritage of UNESCO recognized. The neighboring Wadden Sea in Hamburg was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in summer 2011, and the Danish Vadehavet National Park in 2014.

Human use

Two of the five residents of the national park live on Südfall in summer. In the directly adjacent municipalities, however, there are 290,000 inhabitants, in addition to almost 15 million tourists.

In the national park, two people live on the Hallig Süderoog all year round and three people also live in summer (one on Trischen , two on Südfall ). The national park is bordered by 70 communities with around 290,000 inhabitants, plus almost 15 million tourists annually.

The area of the park is used for tourism , fishing , oil extraction , coastal protection , grazing, shipping, air traffic, gravel and sand extraction, mussel farming and is occasionally used for military weapon tests . However, most of these uses take place directly on the coast, so that the seaward parts of the national park can largely follow the protection goal of free development uninfluenced by humans.

Since the amendment to the National Park Act in 1999, voluntary agreements between the national park administration and user groups have primarily served to restrict human use. The balancing paragraph contained in the law has greatly increased the acceptance of the park on site. Certain uses that have hardly any adverse effects have been permitted again since 1987, including the collection of lugworms by anglers, the picking of small bouquets of non-protected species and the removal of small quantities of plants and animals for research and education, for example at Mudflat walks .

Acceptance by the population and tourists

Regular surveys, which are commissioned by the National Park Administration as part of the Socio-Economic Monitoring (SÖM Watt) in particular, show that tourists on the North Sea coast are not only as well informed about the national park as the locals themselves, but are generally positive about it . After the Bavarian Forest, the Wadden Sea National Park comes in second in a representative nationwide survey on the awareness of the national parks in Germany, but in the unsupported query only a few people differentiate between the three individual Wadden Sea National Parks (Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony), which in represent a single protected area to the public perception.

Surveys also showed high general approval rates for the national park among locals. According to the SÖM report from 2017, a total of 85% of the residents of Dithmarschen and North Friesland would vote for the continued existence of the national park in a referendum. The positive vote in the annual survey has been over 80% without exception since 2009. 10% of those questioned would agree to a continuation under certain conditions. The few negative participants in the survey (only 2% would definitely vote against the continued existence of the national park) fear further restrictions, for example in the area of fishing, water sports activities or the accessibility of the protected area. The majority of those questioned, however, show an understanding of specific protective measures. In the 2014 resident survey, 36% of residents said they were proud of the national park, a further 52% thought it was important, and 2.5% rated it negatively. Younger people and women rated the park more positively on average than older people and men.

How far the national park administration has actually managed to educate the locals about the details of the protection regulations is questionable: the national park can hardly restrict agriculture, as there was hardly any agriculture in the protected area before the creation of the national park. The exact status of the protected area is also largely unknown: even in 2017, 32 years after the introduction of the national park, only 14% of the locals were able to state without help (unsupported) that the Wadden Sea is protected as a national park . Awareness of the protection category biosphere reserve is less than 1%.

Coastal defense

Coastal protection has priority over all other concerns in the national park area , and no compromises are made in favor of environmental protection. For the mainland and many island areas, this means the expansion and strengthening of the sea dikes, and in some areas such as the west coast of Sylt also the depositing of sand. Unlike in other national parks, coastal protection is also an integral part of the national park itself, as it has been taking place for several hundred years and has shaped the current shape of the Wadden Sea.

The Wadden Sea in the form in which it is placed under protection is a landscape created by man since the Middle Ages, which would change its face significantly without coastal protection. One example is the salt marshes, which are often criss-crossed by artificial drainage ditches that greatly change the actually amphibious character of the biotope. While the people, however, have endeavored since the first settlement to wrest further areas from the sea and to land, there are only minimal plans to fortify dyke foreland in front of Schardichen in order to increase the security against storm surges.

tourism

When hiking through the mudflats, tourists can get directly into the national park area

The National Park Act explicitly states that the preservation of nature through the national park should also - through positive repercussions on tourism and the reputation of the region - serve sustainable development to improve the living and working conditions of the people living in the area. The national park is located in a traditional German holiday region, which was a popular holiday destination even without the national park. Tourism is also the most important source of income in the region. For example, according to official figures, 1.5 million holidaymakers annually ensure almost 8.4 million overnight stays in the adjacent coastal strip and on the North Sea islands and shelters. The actual figures are probably well above the official statistics, as these do not capture the so-called "gray accommodation market" (private landlords with less than ten beds, permanent camping, relatives and acquaintances). It is also difficult to determine the number of day visitors. Supplementary population-representative studies are used to calculate the total volume. In total, a total of 18.7 million overnight stays will be generated on the North Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein. In addition, there are 12.8 million day trips per year. Around 9,000 employees work in tourism.

North Sea tourism in the national park

Mudflat excursion of the Wadden Sea protection station in the north mudflats off Hallig Langeness

Due to the large number of visitors, the large area and long border, as well as the relatively modest number of employees for monitoring, visitor control and monitoring is difficult. While many other German national parks have a main entrance and designated side entrances, it is possible to enter the Wadden Sea National Parks along the entire coastline. Although there is close cooperation between municipalities, nature conservation associations and national park administration, there are still considerable gaps in monitoring.

The effects of tourism extend far into the national park, but normally the holidaymakers themselves are outside the park. Mainly mudflat hikers enter the park . The number of privately running mudflat hikers is not known, the number of participants in guided tours depends mainly on the weather, but in 2016 it reached 143,000 participants on 5,900 individual tours, a record that has not been reached since 1999. Around two thirds of these are led by members of the Wadden Sea Conservation Station , the majority of the rest is made up of National Park Wadden Guides.

National Park Tourism

The Multimar Watt forum , with about 200,000 visitors a year, the main information center of the national park

To what extent the national park will really have a beneficial effect on the number of tourists is uncertain. The number of guest arrivals and overnight stays has increased steadily since 1984. In comparison to similar districts without a national park (Schleswig-Flensburg and Rendsburg-Eckernförde) and their increasing number of visitors, according to a statistical study by Julia Schmid, the expulsion has "very probably not had any effect". In terms of time, the sharp increases coincide more with German reunification in 1989/1990 than with the designation of the national park in 1986. In 2014, the percentage of national park tourists in the narrower sense was 17%. These national park tourists generate an annual tourist value creation of 89 million euros. This corresponds to an income equivalent of 4741 people. As part of the INTERREG IV B project PROWAD, another guest survey was carried out in which North Sea vacationers were asked about the importance of the national park status as a reason for a travel decision. Almost 44% of those questioned stated that protecting the Wadden Sea as a national park was "very important" or "important" for their travel decision.

The national park itself should also be used for public relations. For this purpose, the national park administration has set up a comprehensive visitor information system. It consists of pavilions, information boards and maps, signs and signposts. In the meantime, a good 750 elements can be found at 250 locations along the mainland coast as well as on islands and isles. Above all, however, it has been running a main center since 1999 (the National Park Center Multimar Wattforum in Tönning ) as well as the National Park Center in Wyk auf Föhr and the National Park House in Husum (together with the WWF , the Wadden Sea Protection Station and the Husum-Bredstedt church district). In addition, more than 30 national park houses and stations on the coast provide information about the national park and the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site. These information facilities are operated by various agencies such as environmental associations or municipalities and differ in size and equipment. Well-attended tourist attractions, which also provide comprehensive information about the national park, include the Multimar Wattforum with around 180,000 visitors, for example the Friedrichskoog seal station (almost 160,000 visitors in 2016) and the Adventure Center Naturgewalten List on Sylt (170,000).

National park partner in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park

The logo of the national park partner project, which was launched in 2003 by the national park administration.

The project was founded in 2003 by the national park administration. Since then, regional tourism companies have been able to apply for the National Park Partner award. The idea of the national park partners on the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea stands for quality, lived regionality, environmental awareness and sustainable tourism development in the region. It is a cooperation between municipalities, nature conservation associations, local tourism companies and the national park administration. The central committee of the national park partners is the procurement council, which decides on the admission to the national park partner network. The awarding board is made up of representatives from the island and Hallig conference, nature conservation associations, partners, the North Sea Tourism Service GmbH and the national park administration. The current chairman of the procurement council is Anja Szczesinski ( WWF ), the management is headed by Matthias Kundy (national park administration). Companies and businesses that apply for admission to the National Park Partner Network must meet comprehensive criteria in the areas of identification with the Wadden Sea National Park, environmental protection, quality, service and information exchange in order to be admitted. The partnership network now includes over 170 partners, divided into different categories, such as holiday apartments, shipping companies, museums and mudflat guides. The national park partnership is chargeable for the members.

Currently there are partner initiatives in 27 national natural landscapes ( biosphere reserves , national and nature parks ) with a total of over 1000 partners. They work together in an AG of Europarc Germany (the umbrella organization of the national natural landscapes). Minimum standards and criteria have been harmonized nationwide so that a high level of quality can be guaranteed for all partners.

Fishing, hunting and agriculture

Traditional shrimp trawlers with beam trawls make up most of the ships in the Wadden Sea.

Conflicts are particularly provoked by the coexistence of national parks and fisheries. Crab catching has the greatest economic importance within the fishery , since crabs are not endangered and are not subject to any fishing quotas. Cod , plaice and sole, on the other hand, are rarely fished and are subject to various protective provisions and quota regulations. The industrial so-called rotten fishing has been banned in the coastal waters of the North Sea since the 1970s. Overall, fishing contributes less than one percent to the West Coast's gross national product and is therefore relatively insignificant from an economic point of view. However, its existence is more important for tourism, as it conveys the typical maritime flair that North Sea holidaymakers expect. While agriculture itself is of far greater economic importance on the west coast, it takes place almost exclusively outside the national park area. Only the grazing of the salt marshes by sheep is a point of conflict.

Crab catching

The shrimp cutters are a characteristic picture of the Wadden Sea coast. Fishing for North Sea shrimp or crab ( Crangon crangon ) is considered a traditional fishery. However, it has only been done with cutters since around 1900, previously with the gliep , a net that was pushed across the sea floor while wading. In 2016, 77 Schleswig-Holstein shrimp cutters were in the North Sea. The number of cutters has been declining for many years: in 1999, for example, there were still 144 cutters. Smaller cutters from family businesses are particularly affected. In contrast, the number of larger industrial cutters is increasing. These can stay outside longer and even in bad weather.

In the years 2010–2015 approx. 6,000 tons of crabs were landed annually, in 2016 the landings were unusually low at 2,530 tons.

Mussel fishing

Mussels are cultivated on a maximum of 1,700 hectares of so-called mussel culture districts until they are ready for consumption. Seed (i.e. young mussels) for the stocking of these mussel cultures can be obtained from natural hatching or from up to 250 hectares of seed mussel extraction systems. Wild mussel fishing - i.e. the direct landing of mussels - is prohibited. Mussel farming is limited to the permanently flooded area of Zone 2 on an area of approx. 13 hectares of the national park. Since 1997 all dry areas of the Wadden Sea have been closed to the mussel industry. The number of permits for mussel farming in the Wadden Sea is limited to eight. On average (2014-2016) around 10,000 tons were landed. There is a general ban on landing from the beginning of April to mid-June.

Fishing for cockles and razor clams has been banned since 1990. However, due to the high losses in cold winters in Schleswig-Holstein, this was largely of no economic importance. The Pacific oyster ( Magallana gigas ) can be grown on a maximum of 30 hectares off Sylt by a licensee. The oysters in this facility are kept in heated tanks throughout the winter. Around one million oysters are harvested and sold on Sylt every year, around a third are consumed directly on Sylt. The Pacific oyster has spread en masse in the Wadden Sea in recent years (as of 2018). “Oyster-mussel reefs” ( oyssel reefs ) have formed from the formerly pure mussel banks . Attempts to fish for the fixed trough clam ( Spisula solida ) were successful in the early 1990s. In the severe winter of 1995/1996, however, all fishable mussels fell victim to the unusually cold weather. Trough mussel fishing in the national park has not been permitted since the end of 2016.

Aquaculture and hunting

In Büsum there is a test facility for marine aquaculture , which is supplied with North Sea water from the national park via a pipeline . While hunting in the national park has been forbidden since 1999, hunters who specialize in waterfowl are still active on the hallig islands surrounded by the park.

Agriculture

Farmers blame barnacle geese in particular for feeding damage in the adjacent areas. Above all, however, they benefit from the fact that many salt marshes are no longer grazed by sheep.

In addition to tourism, agriculture is an important source of income for the coastal areas. In particular, the southern part of Dithmarsch was an agricultural export area as early as the Middle Ages and still has intensive agriculture today. While this, with the exception of sheep breeding, does not take place directly in the national park area, it does have an impact on this area, as many birds also fly over the dike and water from and across the fields through grooves (drainage ditches) and sluices directly into the national park.

Directly, however, agriculture and the national park have little in common. Grazing with sheep is only a problem on the salt marshes . Since the beginning of the settlement, the salt marshes have been used for livestock farming. This was intensified until the 1980s, largely driven by state subsidies. While it is necessary for reasons of coastal protection to graze the sea dike and the direct foreland of the dike, to keep the vegetation short and to compact the earth by means of the shaft steps, further seaward this should be avoided if possible.

As part of the coastal verge program, which provided for financial compensation payments from 1991 to 1996, the shepherds have since refrained from grazing many salt marshes. At the same time, drainage was stopped in the disused areas. Between 1988 and 2014 the salt marsh population off the coasts of North Friesland and Dithmarschen increased by 13.5%. With a total area of 12,450 ha in 2006, 47% of the salt marshes were not grazed, 11% extensively and 38% intensively.

Transport and infrastructure

Almost all shipping traffic in the national park is for tourists. Various shipping companies therefore work together with the national park administration and have themselves identified as national park partners.

On the Schleswig-Holstein coast there are small and medium-sized ports ( Meldorf , Büsum , Husum , Nordstrand , Pellworm , Dagebüll , Wyk auf Föhr , Amrum , Hörnum and List auf Sylt ), which can only be reached through the National Park. Most of the ship's movements take place in the fairways of the ferry traffic to the islands.

A special federal navigational ordinance applies to the entire sea area. This allows, for example, the cordoning off of temporary protection zones to protect seabirds and seals as well as driving bans at low water. The seaward part of the national park itself is marked as PSSA ( Particularly Sensitive Sea Area ), which means various restrictions for shipping traffic and, above all, stipulates routes further seaward for ships with dangerous cargo. However, the most important shipping routes, such as the Elbe estuary directly south of the national park, are excluded.

The Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea is directly north of one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, the southern North Sea. In an area with rapidly changing weather and often strong storms with poor visibility, there is always the risk of a ship accident with considerable potential damage to the national park area as well. In everyday life, however, birds polluted with oil are more evident and die because captains illegally dump oil on the high seas. The park experienced its greatest endangerment on October 25, 1998 when the cargo ship Pallas was wrecked off Amrum, during which around 244 tons of oil ran into the North Sea.

The Adler Express is a fast ferry between the islands and the mainland. It is not certified as a "National Park Partner". Since she is traveling at high speed in regular service, there is a risk that marine mammals will not have enough time to escape.

Since inhabited islands and halligen are completely surrounded by the national park area, their supply and connection inevitably takes place through this. In addition to shipping, this also affects various lines (energy, data, water) and civil air traffic.

Oil, wind power and sand

Construction of the pipeline through the national park to connect Mittelplate A with the mainland

In the middle of the national park near the bird island Trischen is the only remaining German offshore oil drilling platform Mittelplate A , which exploits by far the most important German oil field. Oil production from a depth of 2,000 to 3,000 meters has been running there since 1987, supplemented by an inclined drilling from the mainland since 2000 ( Friedrichskoog ). The oil was originally transported to Brunsbüttel by tankers, but has been running through an underground pipeline since 2005. According to official sources, the island's shielding is good enough that it can be viewed as a “zero emission unit”. Of course, lighting, noise and the supply of the drilling platform from Cuxhaven in Lower Saxony also develop a certain potential for disruption to the local environment.

The construction of further drilling rigs is not permitted either under the National Park Act or the Trilateral Wadden Sea Agreement. However, there are probably other deposits south of the field as far as the Elbe stream and on the salt domes off Büsum and Oldenswort. It is not certain whether these can be fully developed from stations outside the national park; it is very unlikely that Mittelplate A will be sufficient to tap all oil sources. The RWE Dea has applied for five additional drilling in the National Park. In order to increase accuracy, you should drill directly vertically, but this also means that this is not possible from Mittelplate A. A permit from the mining authority has been obtained for this, but according to a legal opinion by the Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament, this is illegal. The political controversy over further oil drilling continues.

While wind energy has so far only been of decisive importance in the land areas of the adjacent coastal regions, plans for offshore wind farms are ongoing . Although these are prohibited in the national park, the connection to the land ( submarine cables , supply) will inevitably lead through the area of the national park and at least cause damage to nature when the cables are laid.

While it is forbidden to take raw materials from the sea for commercial purposes and sell them to construction companies, for example, there are larger sand and gravel withdrawals in favor of coastal protection. An average of 1.1 million cubic meters are removed every year, for example to flush sand off Sylt or the Halligen or to reinforce new dykes.

military

Since the establishment of the national park, the Bundeswehr has completely given up its firing range on Sylt; in the military test area in the southern part of the Meldorfer Bay , neither bombs nor napalm are tested as in earlier times. In the 1960s, armaments companies still fired into the tidal flats 130 days a year and recovered most of the projectiles with helicopters . However, private companies on behalf of the German Armed Forces continue to carry out armaments and missile tests about two days a year, which have a massive and direct impact on the organisms in the target area as well as the wider area - by recovering the projectiles with helicopters. There are also regular military training flights over the national park area, which, however, must not fall below a minimum height of 900 meters for jet planes.

It is still largely unclear how much ammunition from the Second World War is off the Schleswig-Holstein coast. This ammunition was often undocumented and sunk in the sea by the German Navy after the end of the war. Although the largest part apparently rests in the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea, with 400,000 to 1,300,000 tonnes in total, there are also considerable contaminated sites in the Schleswig-Holstein part. Such are known in some places west of Sylt, largely unknown in others. The ammunition is now likely to release considerable amounts of pollutants through corrosion; if handled improperly by fishermen or tourists, for example, a major disaster, even with serious effects on the environment, cannot be excluded.

literature

Anders Galatius et al .: Aerial surveys of Harbor Seals in the Wadden Sea in 2017 , 2017, Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, as PDF
Bettina Reineking: Seal epidemic 2002: Information on Dead Seals in the North Sea, Wadden Sea and the Kattegat / Skagerrak Area in 2002, 2003 , Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, [https: /www.waddensea-secretariat.org/sites/default/ files / 2008_Nomination% 20dossier.pdf as PDF]
Common Wadden Sea Secretariat (CWSS) (Ed.): Nomination of the Dutch-German Wadden Sea as World Heritage Site . 2008 as PDF
Christiane Gätje: Socio-economic monitoring in the national park region - SÖM report 2017 , 2017, LKN.SH - national park administration, as PDF
Christiane Gätje: Socio-economic monitoring in the national park region - SÖM report 2015 , 2015, LKN.SH - national park administration, as PDF
Christiane Gätje: Socio-economic monitoring in the national park region - SÖM report 2014, 2014 , LKN.SH - national park administration , as PDF
Dirk Legler: The organization of German national park administrations . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2006, ISBN 3-8329-1978-3
State Office for the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park (Ed.): Wattenmeermonitoring 2000 - Series of publications of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park , special issue, Tönning 2001
State Office for the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park (ed.): SÖM report 2008 as pdf
State Office for the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park / State Office for the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park / Federal Environment Agency (publisher): Environmental Atlas Wadden Sea. Vol. 1 (North Frisian and Dithmarsch Wadden Sea) , Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-8001-3492-6
Martin Stock et al .: Salt marshes on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein 1986–2001 . Boyens Buchverlag, Heide 2005, ISBN 3-8042-0703-0
Ministry of Agriculture, Environmental Protection and Rural Areas of the State of Schleswig-Holstein (MLUL) (Ed.): Report on the review of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea and Halligen biosphere reserve by UNESCO. Reporting period 1990 to 2005 . June 2005 as pdf
Robert Habeck et al .: " Key point agreement on the mussel culture industry in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park ", Kiel 2015, LKN.SH National Park Administration, as PDF
Sophie Brasseur et al .: TSEG Gray Seal surveys in the Wadden Sea and Helgoland in 2016 - 2017 , 2017, Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, as PDF
Wanner, A., Stock, M., Jensen, K .: Salt marshes in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park - Vegetation changes in the last 20 years. , 2014, Natur und Landschaft 89, 17–25.

Filmography

In the Wadden Sea National Park . Documentary, 45 min., Germany, 1998, by Jens-Uwe Heins and Michael Sutor, production: Complete-Media-GmbH, Grünwald ( ISBN 3-89672-492-4 ), Adventure Wilderness ( Memento from July 1, 2009 on the Internet Archive ) of the ARD

... shaped by the tides, Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park, 21 min., Germany, 1995. A film by Helmke Kaufner and Peter Kaufner, production: Cinedesign, Hamburg

Web links

Commons : Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikivoyage: Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park - travel guide

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Legler, pp. 189–208

↑ ^a ^b Rudolf Eugen Kelch: "Much Ado About Nothing or How Schleswig-Holstein Amended its National Park Act" as pdf ( Memento from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Landscape profile Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea Islands and Halligen from the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )

↑ ^a ^b CWSS pp. 19-30

↑ MLUL pp. 32-34

↑ ^a ^b CWSS pp. 125-131

↑ Wadden Sea Protection Station: Whale Sanctuary

↑ Petra Witez: "Final report on the research project MTK 0608 (03 KIS 3160): Programs for the long-term conservation of the Wadden Sea - Prowatt", published by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research Laboe 2002 pp. 7–8

↑ Petra Witez: "Final report on the research project MTK 0608 (03 KIS 3160): Programs for the long-term conservation of the Wadden Sea - Prowatt", published by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Laboe 2002, pp. 18-19

↑ ^a ^b ^c Stock 2006 pp. 8-23

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j MLUL pp. 11–31

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d CWSS pp. 89-93

↑ Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency: "Sea grasses and green algae in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea" ( Memento from January 3, 2018 in the Internet Archive )

↑ ^a ^b Wadden Sea Protection Station: "Plants in the Wadden Sea"

↑ Bettina Reineking: Seal epidemic 2002: Information on Dead Seals in the North Sea, Wadden Sea and the Kattegat / Skagerrak Area in 2002. (No longer available online.) Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, 2003, archived from the original on September 6, 2015 ; Retrieved November 10, 2011 .

↑ Anders Galatius et al .: Aerial surveys of Harbor Seals in the Wadden Sea in 2017. (No longer available online.) Comman Wadden Sea Secretariat, 2017, archived from the original on November 10, 2017 ; accessed on November 10, 2017 .

↑ Sophie Brasseur et al .: TSEG Gray Seal surveys in the Wadden Sea and Helgoland in 2016 - 2017. (No longer available online.) Comman Wadden Sea Secretariat, 2017, archived from the original on November 10, 2017 ; accessed on November 10, 2017 .

↑ ^a ^b ^c Wadden Sea Protection Station: "Animals"

↑ Manfred Gerstberger: The butterfly fauna of the salt areas of Germany , status XI / 2006 archive link ( Memento from September 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on March 11, 2007

↑ Balance sheet and comments on the endangerment situation of butterflies in Schleswig-Holstein [1] , accessed on January 25, 2008

^ CWSS pp. 94-100

↑ ^a ^b Landesamt 2001 pp. 64–67

^ CWSS p. 53

↑ Reinhard Schmidt-Moser: "75 Years of Nature Reserves in Schleswig-Holstein"

↑ NABU: Wadden Sea north of the Hindenburg dam

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e National Park Office Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer (Ed.): "National Park News - 20 Years Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer 1985-2005", Tönning 2005 arouse joy for nature conservation ( Memento from February 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

↑ ^a ^b ^c CWSS pp. 116-125

↑ State ordinance on the North Frisian Wadden Sea NSG , accessed on May 14, 2013

↑ Description of the nature reserve on the website of the State of Schleswig-Holstein ( memento from November 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 14, 2013

↑ Horst Sterr: "National Parks"

↑ Wadden Sea Protection Station: The Danish Wadden Sea is a national park

↑ ^a ^b ^c Legler pp. 209-212

^ ^A ^b ^c Lars Müller: New Law for the National Park in Schleswig-Holstein. In: Wadden Sea Newsletter 2000–1 pp. 20–21 as pdf ( Memento from December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

↑ ^a ^b Horst Sterr: "National Park Act"

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Frank Zabel: “The end of the debate?” Boyens Medien / Dithmarscher Landeszeitung ( Memento from February 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Horst Sterr: "Protests"

↑ ^a ^b Law for the Protection of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea (National Park Law - NPG) of September 17, 1999, last amended by law of December 13, 2007 (GVOBl. Schl.-HS 514) Archived copy ( Memento of January 1, 2014 on the Internet Archive ) (as pdf; 639 kB)

↑ ^a ^b Legler, pp. 181-189

↑ Organization plan of the State Office for Coastal Protection, National Park and Marine Protection Schleswig-Holstein ( Memento from January 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), as of January 1, 2013

^ NABU Schleswig-Holstein: Wadden Sea National Park as a successful model. schleswig-holstein.nabu.de , accessed on March 25, 2018

^ CWSS p. 115

↑ ^a ^b ^c CWSS s.! 08-109

^ The Wadden Sea ( Memento of March 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Added value plus - The importance of tourism for the region and central challenges for tourism on the west coast. Nordsee-Tourismus-Service GmbH (NTS), March 2014, accessed on November 24, 2017 .

↑ Legler, pp. 212-221

↑ Christiane Gätje: Socio-economic monitoring in the national park region - SÖM report 2017. LKN.SH - National Park Administration , 2017, accessed on November 24, 2017 .

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Christiane Gätje: Socio-economic monitoring (SÖM WATT) in the national park region - SÖM report 2017. LKN.SH - National Park Administration , 2017, accessed on November 13, 2017 .

↑ Christiane Gätje: Socio-Economic Monitoring (SÖM Watt) in the National Park Region - SÖM Report 2015. LKN.SH - National Park Administration , 2015, accessed on November 13, 2017 .

↑ Law for the Protection of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea (National Park Law - NPG). LKN SH - National Park Management, 2009, accessed on November 27, 2017 .

↑ SÖM report 2008

↑ ^a ^b Julia Schmid: Regional economic effects of large protected areas. An empirical study on the national parks in Germany. Publication series Agraria: Studies on Agroecology, Dr. Kovač, Hamburg 2006, ISSN 0945-4888 , pp. 94-106

^ ^A ^b Christiane Gätje: Socio-economic monitoring in the national park region - SÖM report 2014. LKN.SH - National Park Administration , 2014, accessed on November 24, 2017 .

^ Hubert Job: Regional economic effects of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park. 2013, accessed November 27, 2017 .

↑ ^a ^b Watt are national park partners. LKN.SH - National Park Management, accessed December 7, 2017 .

↑ ^a ^b ^c watts for a region! LKN.SH - National Park Management, accessed December 7, 2017 .

^ Umbrella organization of the national natural landscapes. Europarc Germany, accessed December 7, 2017 .

↑ ^a ^b Report of the state government on the situation and development of fisheries in the North and Baltic Seas as well as inland and pond fisheries. Printed matter 15/452 of the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag as pdf

↑ ^a ^b MLUL pp. 35-43

↑ Crab fishing. LKN.SH - National Park Management, accessed December 7, 2017 .

↑ Fischerblatt 2017. Accessed December 7, 2017 .

↑ MELUND: Official Gazette for Schleswig-Holstein 2017 . Ed .: MELUND. Issue 3, April 2017.

↑ ^a ^b Robert Habeck et al: Key point agreement on the mussel culture economy in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park. 2015, accessed November 24, 2017 .

↑ Fischerblatt 2015. 2015, accessed on November 24, 2017 .

↑ Fischerblatt 2016. 2016, accessed on November 24, 2017 .

↑ Fischerblatt 2017. 2017, accessed on November 24, 2017 .

↑ ^a ^b ^c CWSS pp. 62-66

^ Reise, KC Buschbaum, H. Büttger, KM Wegner (2017): Invading oysters and native mussels: from hostile takeover to compatible bedfellows. Ecosphere (8) 9: e01949.10.1002 / ecs2.1949

↑ ^a ^b CWSS pp. 100-107

^ ^A ^b Wanner, A., Stock, M., Jensen, K .: Salt marshes in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park - vegetation changes in the last 20 years . Ed .: Nature and Landscape. No. 89 . Nature and Landscape, 2014, p. 17-25 .

^ Report on the accident ( memento from October 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at waddensea-secretariat.org (PDF, archive version)

↑ Werner Sturbeck: A little treasure lies beneath the Wadden Sea. FAZ v. July 21, 2008

↑ Protection Wattenmeer: stage win against oil exploration, August 12, 2008

^ National Park Office Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer (ed.): "Annual Report 2003/2004 of the National Park Office", Tönning 2005

↑ Stefan Nehring: " Old military pollution in the German coastal waters - Recommendations for action for the successful implementation of the European Water Framework Directive" in Rostock Marine Biological Contributions Volume 14, Rostock 2005 pp. 109–123 (as pdf)

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on October 13, 2008 in this version .

[Legler2-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Legler, pp. 189–208

[Kelch-2] Rudolf Eugen Kelch: "Much Ado About Nothing or How Schleswig-Holstein Amended its National Park Act" as pdf ( Memento from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

[DE_BFN-SB68000-3] Landscape profile Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea Islands and Halligen from the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )

[CWSS_Geo-4] CWSS pp. 19-30

[MLUL_Zone-5] MLUL pp. 32-34

[CWSS_Mean-6] CWSS pp. 125-131

[7] Wadden Sea Protection Station: Whale Sanctuary

[8] Petra Witez: "Final report on the research project MTK 0608 (03 KIS 3160): Programs for the long-term conservation of the Wadden Sea - Prowatt", published by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research Laboe 2002 pp. 7–8

[9] Petra Witez: "Final report on the research project MTK 0608 (03 KIS 3160): Programs for the long-term conservation of the Wadden Sea - Prowatt", published by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Laboe 2002, pp. 18-19

[Stock1-10] Stock 2006 pp. 8-23

[MLUL_Phys-11] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j MLUL pp. 11–31

[CWSS_Habi-12] CWSS pp. 89-93

[Seegras-13] Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency: "Sea grasses and green algae in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea" ( Memento from January 3, 2018 in the Internet Archive )

[SchuPfla-14] Wadden Sea Protection Station: "Plants in the Wadden Sea"

[15] Bettina Reineking: Seal epidemic 2002: Information on Dead Seals in the North Sea, Wadden Sea and the Kattegat / Skagerrak Area in 2002. (No longer available online.) Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, 2003, archived from the original on September 6, 2015 ; Retrieved November 10, 2011 .

[16] Anders Galatius et al .: Aerial surveys of Harbor Seals in the Wadden Sea in 2017. (No longer available online.) Comman Wadden Sea Secretariat, 2017, archived from the original on November 10, 2017 ; accessed on November 10, 2017 .

[17] Sophie Brasseur et al .: TSEG Gray Seal surveys in the Wadden Sea and Helgoland in 2016 - 2017. (No longer available online.) Comman Wadden Sea Secretariat, 2017, archived from the original on November 10, 2017 ; accessed on November 10, 2017 .

[SchuTie-18] Wadden Sea Protection Station: "Animals"

[19] Manfred Gerstberger: The butterfly fauna of the salt areas of Germany , status XI / 2006 archive link ( Memento from September 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on March 11, 2007

[20] Balance sheet and comments on the endangerment situation of butterflies in Schleswig-Holstein [1] , accessed on January 25, 2008

[CWSS_Spec-21] CWSS pp. 94-100

[Rastvögel-22] Landesamt 2001 pp. 64–67

[23] CWSS p. 53

[75JN-24] Reinhard Schmidt-Moser: "75 Years of Nature Reserves in Schleswig-Holstein"

[NABU_Nord-25] NABU: Wadden Sea north of the Hindenburg dam

[20_Jahre-26] National Park Office Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer (Ed.): "National Park News - 20 Years Schleswig-Holsteinisches Wattenmeer 1985-2005", Tönning 2005 arouse joy for nature conservation ( Memento from February 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

[prot-27] CWSS pp. 116-125

[28] State ordinance on the North Frisian Wadden Sea NSG , accessed on May 14, 2013

[29] Description of the nature reserve on the website of the State of Schleswig-Holstein ( memento from November 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 14, 2013

[SterrNP-30] Horst Sterr: "National Parks"

[31] Wadden Sea Protection Station: The Danish Wadden Sea is a national park

[Legler3-32] Legler pp. 209-212

[Müller-33] A ^b ^c Lars Müller: New Law for the National Park in Schleswig-Holstein. In: Wadden Sea Newsletter 2000–1 pp. 20–21 as pdf ( Memento from December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

[SterrG-34] Horst Sterr: "National Park Act"

[Zabel-35] Frank Zabel: “The end of the debate?” Boyens Medien / Dithmarscher Landeszeitung ( Memento from February 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

[SterrP-36] Horst Sterr: "Protests"

[Gesetz-37] Law for the Protection of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea (National Park Law - NPG) of September 17, 1999, last amended by law of December 13, 2007 (GVOBl. Schl.-HS 514) Archived copy ( Memento of January 1, 2014 on the Internet Archive ) (as pdf; 639 kB)

[Legler1-38] Legler, pp. 181-189

[39] Organization plan of the State Office for Coastal Protection, National Park and Marine Protection Schleswig-Holstein ( Memento from January 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), as of January 1, 2013

[40] NABU Schleswig-Holstein: Wadden Sea National Park as a successful model. schleswig-holstein.nabu.de , accessed on March 25, 2018

[CWSS_Own-41] CWSS p. 115

[env-42] CWSS s.! 08-109

[43] The Wadden Sea ( Memento of March 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

[:2-44] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Added value plus - The importance of tourism for the region and central challenges for tourism on the west coast. Nordsee-Tourismus-Service GmbH (NTS), March 2014, accessed on November 24, 2017 .

[Legler4-45] Legler, pp. 212-221