The status of the Wadden sea under European and international law

On paper, the Wadden Sea is one of the most protected nature reserves in Europe. A large number of international conventions and EU directives on the protection of nature, landscape and water, apply to the Wadden Sea. However, discussions on the protection of the Wadden Sea tend to focus on EU law and many people are less familiar with the applicable international conventions and their legal consequences. This report aims to provide an overview of the international conventions and EU nature and water directives and regulations that are applicable to the Dutch Wadden Sea and Ems-Dollard, and to give an explanation of the objectives, obligations and prohibitions that derive from these legal regimes.
The authors have examined not only the text of EU directives and conventions themselves, but also relevant soft-law instruments that have been adopted within these legal regimes (e.g., Resolutions, Recommendations, handbooks and guidelines). These soft-law instruments are not themselves legally binding but do provide greater clarity on the interpretation of key concepts, the objectives of the regimes and the content of obligations and prohibitions. In addition to the conventions and EU directives, the 'Joint Declaration on the Protection of the Wadden Sea' and the cooperation between the three Wadden Sea countries (the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark) are also discussed. This is not a binding convention, however, an good trilateral cooperation is essential for ensuring proper compliance with conventions and EU directives by the three Wadden Sea countries.
The implementation of, and compliance with, the discussed regimes fall outside the scope of this report and have not been the subject of separate research. However, the authors have made good estimates on these issues, which have been integrated in the discussions in this report