With great enthusiasm and pride, we are launching the new Rewilding Dogger Bank programme with an international coalition led by Doggerland Foundation. This large-scale initiative, aimed at rewilding the nature reserve, has received a conditional commitment of funding from the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme. The Dogger Bank initiative is one of seven marine nature restoration projects, spread across Europe, that are now in the starting blocks thanks to the fund.
Emilie Reuchlin, director of Doggerland: “All too often we see that ecosystems far out at sea are ignored – what we can’t see, we don’t care about. Nature organisations have been calling for protection of the Dogger Bank since the 1990s and the task of restoring this ecosystem is enormous. The area has become increasingly impoverished over the past centuries. But the Dogger Bank is a crucial feeding area and nursery in the North Sea that needs restoration and protection. With the funding from the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme, we finally have the chance to scale up our efforts and bring back extinct species and habitats to the Dogger Bank.”
school of Dogger Bank
Director Thijs Middeldorp, Embassy of the North Sea: “The Dogger Bank is, just like the North Sea, a living body and deserves a better place at the negotiating table as a political figure. To discover how this can be done, we are organising a research and imagination programme under the name School of Dogger Bank. With this School, we offer a free space and learning community that will work on various studies, actions and designs. We will collaborate with various social, cultural and knowledge institutions to give the democratic discussion about the North Sea and Dogger Bank an impulse together.”
horse mussel reefs
ARK Rewilding Nederland will soon be participating in the development of horse mussel reefs. ARK’s many years of experience with rewilding at sea (seawilding) in various circumstances form a good basis for this. Roos Bol, project leader at ARK: “The horse mussel is native to the Dogger Bank and fits into this ecosystem.” Shell by shell, they are building new reefs with all kinds of cracks, nooks and crannies: perfect for various species to live in, shelter, lay eggs and feed on. Bol continues: “The most important thing is that the underwater nature on the Dogger Bank will finally have the peace and space to develop and recover. That nature will become richer and stronger as a result is certain. But we will see exactly what will emerge and what that will look like. That is the beauty of rewilding!”
International coalition
The coalition consists of ATU – Atlantic Technological University in Ireland, Blue Marine Foundation in the UK, BUND in Germany, WWF in Denmark and ARK Rewilding Netherlands, the Embassy of the North Sea and Doggerland Foundation in the Netherlands. The programme will last three years and will start in the second half of 2025.
Photo: Common skate, Dipturus batis. Peter Verhoog
Photo: Octopus, Joos van Uffelen
