In 1995 the World Heritage Committee decided to inscribe ‘Schokland and Surroundings’ on the World Heritage List on the basis of cultural criteria (3) and (5).

According to these criteria, cultural world heritage must (3) bear unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared; and (5) be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change.

The following considerations applied when ‘Schokland and Surroundings’ was inscribed on the List. The Committee noted that the site contains the last remnants of prehistoric and early historical communities living on peat soil that was under constant threat of the sea. Schokland is part of an agricultural area created through the reclamation of part of the IJsselmeer, the former Zuyder Zee. So it is also part of the never-ending struggle of the Dutch against the sea and one of the largest visionary and engineering projects of the twentieth century.