Environment
UNESCO warns against oil and gas production in the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site
The UN cultural organization Unesco warns against oil and gas production in the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site. photo
© Christian Charisius/dpa
The Wadden Sea World Heritage Site is under pressure: power lines to new offshore wind farms have to be laid, and there are projects for oil and gas production in the region. Now UNESCO is warning.
The UN cultural organization UNESCO has urged Germany and the Netherlands to refrain from oil and gas production and salt production in the Wadden Sea, which has been declared a world heritage site, and its immediate surroundings.
The extraction of raw materials is incompatible with the World Heritage status of the Wadden Sea, declared the UNESCO World Heritage Commission during its current meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Test drilling and further advancement of such projects should be avoided. When laying new power lines to offshore wind farms, measures must be taken to protect the Wadden Sea, warned UNESCO.
One of the projects criticized is the Ternaard gas project, in which a gas field under the Wadden Sea is to be drilled from the Dutch mainland. The gas production project “GEMS – Gateway to the Ems” is located in the immediate vicinity of the world heritage site in front of the mouth of the Ems and the islands of Borkum and Schiermonnikoog. The oil and gas company Wintershall Dea also wants to produce more oil in the Schleswig-Holstein part of the Wadden Sea. There is also a permit in the Netherlands to extract 32 million tons of salt from under the Wadden Sea.
Demand from associations
Following UNESCO’s critical statement, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), the Dutch environmental organization Waddenvereniging and World Heritage Watch called for an immediate stop to projects that are harmful to the environment and the climate in the Wadden Sea.
“A landscape that is unique in the world is falling under the feet of the fossil lobby and the responsible governments are watching idly,” said DUH Federal Managing Director Sascha Müller-Kraenner. Under the guise of the energy crisis, they want to allow new fossil drilling in the Wadden Sea, but the projects are not necessary for energy security and endanger climate and species protection.
“New mining projects will contribute to the progressive lowering of the seabed, the use of fossil fuels will increase the progressive climate change and the rise in sea levels,” said Waddenvereniging spokesman Frank Petersen. “The knowledge that this is in clear contradiction to maintaining World Heritage status should be a crystal clear signal to the Dutch government to no longer allow such projects.”