Our mission
Wadden Wildlife Trust exists to monitor, protect and restore the ecosystem of the Wadden Sea, with a particular focus on the channel between Den Helder and Texel — the busiest passenger ferry corridor crossing the World Heritage Site.
Our history
The trust was founded in 2003 by Dr Pauline Heesterbeek, a marine ecologist who had spent fifteen years at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and grew tired of writing reports that nobody outside academia ever read. She wanted a foundation that could do field work and translate it, in plain Dutch and plain English, for everyone who lived along the Wadden coast.
The first office was a single room above a fish merchant on Prins Hendrikkade, in Den Helder — chosen, the founder insists, "because it smelled honest". For its first three years, the trust ran on six volunteers and a borrowed telescope. The first salaried biologist was hired in 2006. The Texel field station opened in 2011. The Pieterburen rehabilitation partnership was signed in 2014. By 2018 the trust had ANBI charity status and a permanent staff of fourteen.
Today we employ 22 people, work with 340 active volunteers, and operate three field stations along the Dutch Wadden coast.
Our governance
The trust is a Stichting under Dutch law (KvK 41-228-911), governed by a board of five trustees who serve unpaid, three-year, renewable terms. The board approves the annual budget, signs off on programme reports, and is independently audited by Mazars Accountants every spring. The audited reports are published on our annual-report page, in PDF, every May.
How we are funded
- 62 % from individual donors and monthly memberships.
- 21 % from regional cultural and environmental grants (Provincie Noord-Holland, Waddenfonds).
- 11 % from research contracts with Dutch universities and the European Bird Census Council.
- 6 % from in-kind contributions — donated flight hours, second-hand equipment, partner discounts.
We do not accept funding from extractive industries (oil, gas, mining), shipping owners, or any organisation whose work could create a conflict of interest with the integrity of our research. Our donor-acceptance policy is published in full on the annual-report page.
What "independent" means here
We are not part of, controlled by, or formally affiliated with any ferry operator, shipping company, hotel chain, or tourism board. We work cooperatively with the Den Helder–Texel ferry operator on guidelines for low-impact navigation and on the wildlife displays that travellers see in the terminal — but no money changes hands, and the data we collect is published whether the conclusions are comfortable for the operator or not.
How to reach the trust
The fastest way is the form on our contact page. Letters to the trustees can be addressed to the Den Helder office, marked "For the attention of the chair of trustees". We answer everything, in the order it arrives, usually within ten working days.