Markiezaat

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Markiezaat

  • Country: 
    Netherlands (Kingdom of the)
  • Site number: 
    2211
  • Area: 
    1,831.9 ha
  • Designation date: 
    03-04-1987
  • Coordinates: 
    51°27'N 04°15'E
Materials presented on this website, particularly maps and territorial information, are as-is and as-available based on available data and do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Overview

The Site is a freshwater lake composed of former tidal channels and creeks, mud flats, salt marshes and higher ground with young shifting dunes. The Markiezaat is designated as a Natura 2000 site and is considered important for maintaining the biodiversity of the Atlantic biogeographic region. The Site is important for breeding birds with its thinly vegetated banks, small lakes and reed marshes, for fish-eating birds and as a resting area during high tide for birds which forage in the adjacent tidal Oosterschelde. It is an important area for some bird species such as common teal Anas crecca, Eurasian wigeon Anas penelope and Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus. The numbers of wintering birds have been declining in recent years; however, the Site still supports more than 1% of the biogeographic population of the Eurasian spoonbill Platalea leucorodia. A small part of the Markiezaat is open to the public, and features a hide, a small hiking route and a birdwatching tower. Recreation activities are prohibited on the lake. The main threats are posed by industrialization and livestock farming.

Administrative region: 
Provinces of Noord-Brabant and Zeeland

  • National legal designation: 
    • National Ecological Network (NEN) - Markiezaat
  • Regional (international) legal designations: 
    • EU Natura 2000
  • Last publication date: 
    06-01-2023

Downloads

Ramsar Information Sheet (RIS)

Additional reports and documents