Oproep aan deelnemers Biodiversiteitsconferentie Den Haag

De onderstaande tekst wordt aanstaande zondag in de vorm van een kleurenfolder uitgedeeld aan de 1500 deelnemers uit 182 landen van de zesde biodiversiteitsconferentie in Den Haag.

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Dutch Government allows destruction of the Wadden Sea

Dear participant of COP6-CBD, the coming days you will discuss how to protect world-wide biodiversity. The Netherlands are a densely populated but prosperous country that prides itself on its environmental policy. In this leaflet we show that the Dutch Government has no reason to be proud at all. The Netherlands are responsible for protecting biodiversity of the Dutch Wadden Sea but fails completely by allowing large-scale mechanical shellfisheries in this area. The Wadden Sea is our largest wetland of great international importance for many (migratory) birds, fishes, shellfish, crabs, plants and many other organisms.

Shellfisheries The Dutch Government yearly allows mechanical shellfisheries to dredge
shellfish, food for ducks and waders, in 70 % of the 'protected' Dutch Wadden Sea. In the
process of mechanical shellfishing the sediment structure of the seabed is altered in an irreversible way. As a result of this, shellfish recruitment is severely impaired and resettlement of endangered plants made impossible (see abstract of a paper in Journal of Applied Ecology). This destructive way of shellfish harvesting leads to long-term devastation of the Wadden Sea ecosystem and is a major threat to native biodiversity. Wadden Sea shellfish is mostly exported to southern Europe for human consumption. It is of only minor social, cultural and economical importance (0.9 €cent/ Dutch citizen/week) in The Netherlands.

Non-protection According to Dutch laws, human activities in the Wadden Sea that might disturb natural processes should be banned. For example, last month the Dutch Government decided against the building of large windmills and gas exploration in the Wadden Sea. Thus in theory, the Wadden Sea (among Europe’s highest priority conservation sites) is protected against many threats. In practice however, the Dutch Government yearly permits mechanical shellfisheries. We do not understand why the Dutch Government makes this remarkable exception for shellfisheries. The scientific proof that shellfisheries destroy the sea bottom and marine foodwebs is unequivocal and established since many years. Since the start of mechanical shellfisheries, this has resulted in serious population declines of many bird species that are dependent on the Wadden Sea. Several plants and shellfish have (nearly) gone extinct.

Responsibility “Wilde Kokkels” takes your host, Secretary of State Mrs. Faber, fully responsible for not protecting the last true Dutch wilderness. She is fully aware of the immediate and long-term destructive effects of mechanical shellfisheries. For years biologists have warned Mrs. Faber for the destructive impact of this activity on the Wadden Sea ecosystem. Two years ago, 200 Dutch biologists have asked Mrs. Faber to take these scientific results seriously and take action against the huge damage by the mechanical shellfisheries. Secretary of State Faber continues to let (small) economical motives to prevail above biodiversity.

Mass bird mortality At this very moment, in early spring 2002, the 2nd highest mass mortality of Eider ducks ever recorded in the Dutch Wadden Sea is taking place. In the winter of 1999/2000 at least 21.000 Eider ducks starved to death because their food was fished away. This was the highest mortality ever recorded (see the abstract in press for Conservation Biology). As mollusk-eaters Eider ducks are sensitive indicators of the health of the Wadden Sea food-web. Despite all evidence, Mrs. Faber does not want to take action against the mechanical shellfisheries before 2003. This is a disastrous decision that will result in many more starved birds!

When the conference chair Mrs. Faber will ask you to protect your national biodiversity, you have the chance to remind her about her own lack of will to properly protect the world-wide unique Dutch Wadden Sea against unsustainable shellfish theft!

Note: If -as we hope- shellfisheries in the Dutch Wadden Sea will be stopped in the near future, please beware of the ultra-modern factories these ships are and the disaster they might bring to tidal ecosystems elsewhere in the world. Therefore, no ships of this fleet of destruction should ever be sold abroad.

With Best regards,

Wilde Kokkels, Action Group against shellfish fisheries