Designation order

On 19 February 2008 the Voordelta was designated as a Natura 2000 site under the European Birds Directive and the Habitat Directive.

The Voordelta occupies an area of the North Sea of more than 900 km². This site lies off the islands of South Holland and those of Zeeland. The area extends from the Maasvlakte to the tip of Walcheren Island. Owing to the variation of fresh, salt, deep and shallow water – characteristic of a river delta – this is an important habitat and foraging site for seals, fish and birds.

A Birds Directive site or SPA does not need to be notified to the European Commission; the Dutch government can designate the site itself. The designation order states which birds we wish to protect and the boundaries of the site where we intend to protect them.

Maasvlakte 2 will be built in the Voordelta. This construction will expand the Port of Rotterdam by creating an additional 1,000 hectares of port grounds. With the construction of these grounds, the surrounding space they require and the consequences of the sand spraying that will be involved, a total of 2,455 hectares of sandbanks and shallow sea will be lost – and with them an important habitat and foraging site. Owing to the status of the Voordelta as a protected conservation site, the Nature Conservation Act requires that this loss be compensated.

The Voordelta management plan contains the measures that will provide for this compensation. For the protected species, these measures are designed to keep the quality of the seabed, the food supply and the opportunity to reach this food, throughout the entire Voordelta, as they were before the construction of Maasvlakte 2 . The management plan for the Voordelta covers a six-year period and will be published in 2011 at the latest.