The Wadden Sea Forum: The Relevance Of Stakeholder Participation For Sustainable Planning

Abstract

The Wadden Sea is Europe’s largest marine wetland area, bordering the North Sea coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. Because of the international importance of the Wadden Sea as a nature area, large parts are protected under national and international laws and associated management schemes. Since 1978 the trilateral cooperation between Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands on the protection of the Wadden Sea has been dealing with the joint protection of the Wadden Sea ecosystem. In the course of the 25 years of cooperation several central elements of integrated management have been agreed upon. It concerns common objectives, a common delimitation and a common management plan for the area. What was still lacking was a structure for public participation. It was felt by the commercial sectors in the area that there was an imbalance between nature protection and social and economic development of the region and that nature protection rules and regulations would hamper socio-economic developments. With the installation in 2002 of an independent platform, the Wadden Sea Region stakeholders were given a better opportunity to present their views on the future of the Region, taking account of ecological, social and economic aspects, in other words, a sustainable development perspective for the Wadden Sea Region. In a three-year period of intensive discussions and negotiations a common approach to sustainable development of the Wadden Sea Region, focusing on the period 2005–2020, has been developed.