New faces joined the Wadden Sea Board at its 35th meeting

The 35th meeting of the Wadden Sea Board (WSB) was held online on 10 March 2022. A few new members were welcomed. Nanou Beekman of the Dutch Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit (LNV) will be the new Rpresentative from the Netherlands. The Dutch Wadden Sea Provinces are now represented by Johan Hamster, successor to Henk Staghouwer, who was appointed minister of LNV. The Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg is from now on represented by the Senator for Climate Energy and Agricultural Economy, Bernd-Ulrich Netz.

Chaired by Karin Lochte and facilitated by the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, the three national delegations of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands as well as advisors from the Wadden Sea Forum (WSF) and the NGOs Danish Ornithological Society, It Fryske Gea and WWF discussed the implementation of the Leeuwarden Declaration. Specific attention was paid to the next Trilateral Governmental Conference to be held in autumn in Wilhelmshaven as well as the draft Wilhelmshaven Declaration, intended to be signed at said Conference. The Board further agreed on the final draft of the Single Integrated Management Plan to start the consultation.

The upcoming trilateral initiative Dark Sky, supported by the Partnership Hub, was presented by Sonja van Graaf from the Programme Towards a Rich Wadden Sea. The Dark Sky Initiative aims to present a common vision at the Wilhelmshaven Conference. The shipping initiative, jointly launched by the Dutch Nature NGOs and Harbours, found appreciation by the Board. The initiative focuses on the shipping issue in the Wadden Sea as a Particular Sensitive Sea Area. The WSF will arrange to progress on this issue together with the shipping companies in a trilateral setting.

The next Wadden Sea Board meeting is scheduled for 28-29 April 2022.