Sea level rise and international nature conservation law: the case of migratory waterbirds in the Wadden Sea

Future sea level rise (SLR) is in part unavoidable and poses a significant threat to migratory waterbirds in the Wadden Sea. Against this backdrop, this article interrogates the Ramsar Convention and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) to assess to what extent these nature conservation regimes require and encourage adaptation action that can help migratory waterbirds in the Wadden Sea cope with SLR. The article shows that both regimes indirectly require parties to take SLR adaptation action and contain soft law that can fulfil a supplementary role.