2010 Sylt Declaration and 2010 Joint Declaration

The 11th Trilateral Governmental Conference on the Protection of the Wadden was held on the German Wadden Sea island of Sylt on 17 - 18 March 2010 under the chairmanship of the German State Secretary Ursula Heinen-Esser. The Dutch and the Danish governments were represented by Minister Gerda Verburg and Minister Karen Ellemann.

In June 2009, the Dutch-German Wadden Sea was inscribed on the World Heritage List. The nomination has been a tremendous success and been embraced by the region. Denmark was not able to nominate its parts because of the ongoing process of establishing a national park for its Wadden Sea. The ministers agreed to start in the forthcoming period a possible nomination of the Danish Wadden Sea and the nomination of the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park for inclusion on the World Heritage List.

A revised Wadden Sea Plan was also adopted. The 2010 Wadden Sea Plan updates the trilateral policies and management since the first Wadden Sea Plan was adopted at the 8th Conference in Stade in 1997. The Wadden Sea Plan constitutes the common framework for the protection and sustainable management of the Wadden Sea as an ecological entity.