The Wadden Sea Region: A Living Historic Landscape
An integrated strategy to preserve, maintain and develop the cultural landscape
and heritage in the Wadden Sea Region

The landscape and cultural heritage of the Wadden Sea region is world-wide unique and in context of the North Sea one of the most outstanding cultural landscapes. In this landscape you will find expanses of green pastureland, ancient seawalls and waterways, farmhouses, churches, and an impressive number of ancient “mounds”, or manmade hills used as dwelling places, sometimes for over two thousand years. The region is as other regions undergo¬ing a rapid development and transformation, and an integrated strategy is therefore needed to balance economic growth and changing social requirements with conservation of the landscape and cultural heritage of the region.

From 1999 - 2001 the EU co-financed the Lancewad project which elaborated an inventory and valuation of the important cultural landscape and heritage features as well as a characterization of the different cultural landscapes. Based on the inventory, data base and characterization, the present project LancewadPlan goes a step further and is developing a strategy for the sustainable development and preservation of the cultural landscapes and heritage of the Wadden Sea region. Of equal importance is enhancing the awareness of the values of heritage amongst inhabitants and governments, stakeholders, as well as local and regional groups.

Central to LancewadPlan is the development of an integrated management and development strategy with regard to the cultural landscapes and heritage in the Wadden Sea region from Denmark to The Netherlands. It takes into account the views and interests of responsible bodies and stakeholders, from heritage experts, spatial planners and farmers to environmentalists and politicians. The strategy highlights the idea that sustainable use of heritage is the key to preserving the assets of the region in a way that is economically viable.