On 22 October 1997, at the 8^th 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.

On 17 November 2017, the three national delegations of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands as well as advisors from the Wadden Sea Forum and the NGOs Waddenvereniging and WWF met for the 21st meeting of the Wadden Sea Board.

Geomorphology and climate, habitats and communities, species, human activities, and pollution of the Wadden Sea are the main areas of analysis in the Quality Status Report 2017 (QSR).

On 2 February 2018, the three national delegations of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands as well as advisors from the Wadden Sea Forum and the NGOs Waddenvereniging and WWF met for the 22nd meeting of the Wadden Sea Board.

The conference 'Climate change adaptation in the North Sea region'  was successfully held on 8 March 2018 in Schoorl, Netherlands.

In 2016, CWSS initiated an annual jour fixe of the Secretariats of the three German natural World Heritage sites aimed at exchanging information, fostering synergies and increasing their visibility among German World Heritage sites.

On 23 March 2018, the three national delegations of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands as well as advisors from the Wadden Sea Forum and the NGOs Waddenvereniging and WWF met for the 23rd meeting of the Wadden Sea Board (WSB 23). The meeting was held at the Wadden Sea World Heritage Visitor Center in Wilhelmshaven, Germany.