Polluted water, dwindling animal populations:in the 1960s, the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea was in danger. On January 22, 1974, it became a nature reserve, and on October 1, 1985, it became a national park. It has been a World Heritage Site since 2009.
The North Sea as a rubbish dump, dwindling plant and animal populations, tourists who thoughtlessly destroy dune zones:the need for protection of the Wadden Sea became increasingly obvious over the course of the 1960s and 1970s. When the Club of Rome made it clear with its groundbreaking report "The Limits to Growth" how the increasingly global economy is destroying habitats worldwide, among other things, many people can no longer hide behind this realization. Environmentalists are alarmed and stepping up their efforts.
On January 22, 1974, the Schleswig-Holstein state government reacted with a step that made a decisive contribution to nature conservation in the north. It declares an area of 140,000 hectares between the Hindenburgdamm near Sylt and the Eiderstedt peninsula as a nature reserve. In doing so, she is implementing what nature conservationists have been demanding for years at this point:extensive protection of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea.
The protection station has been fighting for the Wadden Sea since 1962
Since 1962, the nature conservation association Schutzstation Wattenmeer has been committed to the unique natural area on the North Sea coast. He founds information centers, publishes publications on the protection of the Wadden Sea and promotes the establishment of a protection zone. In 1968, the conservationists can claim their first success:They achieve that the North Frisian outer sands of Japsand, Norderoogsand and Süderoogsand are designated as nature reserves.
First ideas for a Wadden Sea National Park
In 1972, the association presented its ideas for creating a Wadden Sea National Park at the German Nature Conservation Day. A very progressive suggestion:in Germany there was only one national park at the beginning of the 1970s - in the Bavarian Forest. But what is the difference between a nature reserve and a national park? Both are areas in which landscape, animals and plants are strictly protected. In contrast to the nature reserve, the national park is always a large area. In addition, nature reserves can be privately owned, while national parks are always public.
From nature reserve to national park
They benefited from nature conservation:the seal stocks in the North Sea have recovered since the 1970s.The conservationists are not met with enthusiasm everywhere with their plans:many fishermen and other coastal residents worry about their economic existence. There are fears that radical nature conservation would drive the region into poverty. But the development takes its course - and so the ordinance of January 22, 1974, which places a large part of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea under nature protection, remains just a milestone:In 1982, the Ministry of Agriculture introduces a draft law that declares the Wadden Sea a national park should.
It is already the second attempt - an earlier draft law had failed due to the massive protests in the region. Despite the persistent resistance of many coastal residents, the government passed the National Park Act in July 1985, creating Germany's largest national park in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea. Many nature conservation organizations are initially critical of the national park. They fear that more tourists will be destroyed than the national park status can protect.
Protest against tightened national park law
The plans for a second, stricter national park law, which will come into effect in 1996, have met with resistance. In the weeks and months before it came into force on January 1, 2000, the protests culminated in a shrimp cutter demonstration through the Kiel Canal and egg-throwing attacks on the then Environment Minister Rainder Steenblock from the Greens. The demonstrators light bonfires all along the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein.
With the second national park law, the national park area increased towards the sea and since then has covered around 4,400 square kilometers. The Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea is by far the largest national park in Germany.
From national park to world heritage site
The initially strong resistance to the protection zone has given way over the years to ever-widening approval - the majority of the coastal population now has a positive attitude towards the national park. The Wadden Sea in Lower Saxony has also been protected as a national park since 1986, followed by Hamburg in 1990. How unique and worthy of preservation the Wadden Sea is has also been known internationally since 2009 at the latest:In June 2009, UNESCO named the Dutch and German Wadden Sea areas a world natural heritage site, and since 2011 the section belonging to Hamburg and, since 2014, large parts of the Danish Wadden Sea.