At the end of January 2017, the municipalities of Varde, Esbjerg, Fanø and Tønder welcomed Co Verdaas, Chairman of the Wadden Sea Board, Rüdiger Strempel, CWSS Executive Secretary and CWSS Communications Officer Annika Bostelmann to the Danish Wadden Sea.
On 12 and 13 December 2016 a conference on “Perspectives of transboundary cooperation in World Heritage” took place at the Representation of the State of Hesse in Berlin.
The population of harbour seals in the Wadden Sea area remained largely stable in 2016. Experts assume that a slight decrease in numbers may be a signal that the overall population in the area has reached its carrying capacity.
24 World Heritage experts, practitioners and site managers from all parts of the world gathered on 14-16 November 2016 on the Isle of Vilm in Germany.
30 experts on Wadden Sea education met on 14-16 November 2016 in Ribe (Denmark) at the annual International Wadden Sea School (IWSS) workshop.
The “PROWAD LINK” project partners representing nine organizations in the Wadden Sea sat together in Hamburg on 11 November to discuss the next steps towards submitting a full application.
In cooperation with the Task Group Climate of the Wadden Sea Board, the EU Interreg NSR project “Building with Nature” held a two-day workshop on best practices beyond the region in climate change adaptation.
On 22 October 1997, at the 8th Ministerial Conference in Stade, Germany, the three Wadden Sea States Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands adopted the Wadden Sea Plan, the common policy and management plan for the protection and sustainable management of the Wadden Sea Area.
The Common Wadden Sea Secretariat (CWSS) used the opportunity of COP23 and organized a side event titled “Collaboration in Climate Change Adaption and Mitigation” on 7 November 2017 at the conference grounds.
During the 2017 aerial surveys for harbour seal counts, the number of newborn harbour seal pups in the Wadden Sea registered was the highest since the first surveys in 1975.