The Marker Wadden are an artificially created group of islands in the Markermeer, a lake in the Netherlands that was also artificially created by draining the former Zuiderzee. The islands are politically part of the province of Flevoland and are part of the Nieuw Land National Park, which was opened in 2018.
The islands are located about four kilometers from the Houtribdijk, which connects Enkhuizen in the province of Noord-Holland and Lelystad in the province of Flevoland. Sand, clay and silt from the Markermeer itself were used to create the Marker Wadden. The main aim of the project is to renature the biologically poor lake, which, as a result of the embankment, suffers primarily from the deposition of silt. This suffocates the animal and plant life on the bottom of the lake and clouds the water, which has significantly reduced the ecological quality of the area. Fish, crustaceans and aquatic plants therefore have little chance of survival, which has indirectly also led to a decline in the populations of water and sea birds.
The first phase of the project envisaged the creation of a first archipelago of five islands with a total size of around 1000 hectares and was initially completed in 2020. On the largest of these islands, the so-called harbor or main island, there are a number of buildings that together form the Nederzetting op Marker Wadden (German: "Settlement on the Marker Wadden"); however, permanent settlement with residential buildings is not planned. When the plans are fully implemented, a nature and recreation area of around 10,000 hectares is to be created, which corresponds to a seventh of the surface of the Markermeer. Of this, 5500 hectares alone are to be used for renaturalized underwater landscapes. This makes it one of the largest nature projects in Western Europe. The project is being implemented by the Vereniging Natuurmonumenten and the Rijkswaterstaat transport authority.
The first new island has an area of 250 hectares and was officially opened on September 24, 2016 by State Secretary Martijn van Dam. Since 2018, this island has also been open to the public.
Although the Dutch name suggests it, the Marker Wadden are not a Wadden area from a geological point of view. In this case, the Dutch word wadden comes from the Latin word vadum, which means "shallow place" or "ford". The name is used metaphorically here: it refers to how the land was formed, to the archipelago character and to the ecological value of the newly created area.