Park Wooryang, Shinan County Governor, Visits Wadden Sea to Accompany World Tidal Flat Heritage

Benchmarking Management Strategies of the Wadden Sea Tidal Flats, a Global Leader in Mudflat World Heritage

Park Woo-ryang, the governor of Sinan County, visited the Wadden Sea, an advanced site of tidal flat world heritage, on the 26th to benchmark the globalization of Sinan tidal flats and management plans for tidal flat heritage.

According to the county on the 29th, Governor Park Woo-ryang and the visiting delegation departed on the 23rd to observe the management status and utilization plans of the Wadden Sea tidal flats, visiting Speakerwiek in Germany, the Wadden Sea World Heritage Center, Langeoog, Multimar Center, and the Mirsuergord Nature and Culture Education Center in Denmark.

The Wadden Sea tidal flats span across three countries?Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands?and are a transboundary heritage site registered as a World Natural Heritage.

(On the left) Park Woo-ryang, Governor of Sinan County, and Jeon Seung-soo, Honorary Professor at Chonnam National University, are touring the Wadden Sea mudflats on the 26th.
[Photo by Sinan County]

Like the Sinan tidal flats, the Wadden Sea tidal flats were the first tidal flat areas to be registered as World Natural Heritage under the theme of tidal flats. They were initially inscribed in 2009 and expanded in 2014 to cover a total area of 11,434 km², recognized under criteria ⅷ (geomorphology and geology), ⅸ (biological and ecological processes), and ⅹ (biodiversity and threatened species).

Observing the inscription process of the Wadden Sea tidal flats, Sinan tidal flats identified their unique characteristics and began their challenge for World Natural Heritage status in 2007, finally achieving inscription in 2021.

Sinan tidal flats succeeded in being inscribed as World Natural Heritage under the name of Korean tidal flats, along with Gochang, Seocheon, Boseong, and Suncheon, holding the largest area of 1,100.86 km² (86%) among them.

Additionally, it was recognized for having the most unique and complex hydrological coastal sedimentary system in the world, high species diversity, and playing a significant role in international migratory bird movement and conservation, leading to its inscription under criterion ⅹ (biodiversity and threatened species).

This visit aimed to learn about the conservation, management status, and utilization plans of the Wadden Sea tidal flats, which were inscribed as tidal flat heritage 10 years earlier, and to visit numerous management centers distributed across the region. The plan is to compare and review the operation and management methods of the National Tidal Flat World Natural Heritage Conservation Center to be established in Sinan County and introduce advanced policies accordingly.

Governor Park Woo-ryang said, “Through the visit to the Wadden Sea tidal flats, which are like seniors in tidal flat heritage, we have seen and learned a lot about the sustainable conservation and utilization of Sinan tidal flats, and we will promote reflecting this in our county’s tidal flat policies. Furthermore, as Sinan County is recognized as the representative of Korea’s tidal flat world heritage and will host the National Tidal Flat World Natural Heritage Conservation Center, an integrated management center for tidal flat heritage, we will apply advanced policies to elevate the status of Sinan tidal flats.”

Meanwhile, Sinan tidal flats were inscribed as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site in July 2021 and were recognized as the representative of Korean tidal flats, leading to the confirmation of Sinan County as the host for the National Tidal Flat World Natural Heritage Conservation Headquarters in October 2022.