Natural Values and Importance

Local
The Westhoek state nature reserve is important for the residents of De Panne. The people live in a green environment and the Westhoek state nature reserve provides a place for nature recreation. But it also attracts tourists to come to De Panne, for a one-day visit or a holiday in a green environment. This makes the Westhoek dunes important for the local economy. (see: Tourism and recreation).

Regional
The regional importance of the Westhoek dunes is comparable to the local importance: for providing a green environment and nature orientated recreation.

At the beginning of the century the Flemish coastal dunes covered an area of 6000 ha. Nowadays, only 3400 ha of these coastal dunes are left. The Westhoek dunes are about 340 ha in size and is one of the last unfragmented dune areas along the Belgian coast.

The Westhoek dunes are pedologically and geo-morphologically very divers and therefore unique for Flanders. There is diversity between old, formerly grazed and humus rich soils, lime-rich drift sands and wet or moist dune pan floors. The numerous micro-morphological and macro-morphological dune forms and moving dunes are very valuable, especially the mobile dune complex, which is one of three of these complexes that are saved in Northwest Europe, together with Rabjergmile and Dunkirk.

National
In national context the Westhoek dunes have a biological and historical value and are also for landscape of importance. Since 1935 the Westhoek dunes are classified as ‘landscape’ and since 1957 the dunes are assigned as state nature reserve. (see: Management)

The Westhoek dune area is the only dune area in Belgium, which contains all natural and half-natural Belgian vegetation types. Floristically, the area is important because of its great wealth of different species: almost 400 species of higher plants are present in the area, which forms 1/3 of the Flemish flora, and 20% of the species are classified as rare to extremely rare species. Also, 1/4 of all the Red-List species of Flanders is present in the Westhoek state nature reserve. For the lower plant species several rare species of liverwort and scale moss are present. The Westhoek dunes are also important for fauna: several valuable nesting birds breed in the Westhoek dunes and several small reptiles have well-developed populations in the dune area. Several invertebrates that are bounded to marine environments (several spiders, grasshoppers and ground beetles), which live in the Westhoek dunes, are rare species for Flanders.

The Westhoek-Ghyvelde area is one of the three places in Belgium where the sequence of sea-beach-dune-polder is still preserved (not interrupted by stony dikes, roads, camping areas, etc).

International
Internationally, the Westhoek state nature reserve is important for the mobile dune complex as mentioned above and it is stated as an area to be preserved according to the EU Bird Directive and EU Habitat Directive. Especially for migratory birds the Westhoek dunes act as a resting area and for forage. Several important natural habitats that need to be saved in European context are the mobile dunes, the ‘grey’ dunes and the moist dune slacks. The Habitat Directive also protects the wild flora and fauna that needs to be saved in a European context.