Context The governance of international natural World Heritage sites is extremely challenging. In the search for effective multilevel governance there is a need to identify the community of people which have place attachment to the areas, i.e. 'the community of fans' at local to international levels. Objectives Focusing on the landscape of the international Wadden Sea coastal area in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark as a case study, we address three key questions: What is the spatial distribution of the community of fans? How does the size of this community relate to the overlapping communities of locals and actual visitors to the Wadden Sea coastal area? Which parts of the Wadden Sea coastal area are most appreciated by the community of fans, and how does this relate to its formal protection status? Methods We analysed 7650 respondents' answers to a trilateral web survey (the standardized Greenmapper survey) conducted in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Results We estimated that 14 million German, Dutch and Danish citizens can be regarded as the potentialnational level-community of fans. The correlation between place or landscape attachment and distance was varied among the three countries. Furthermore, only 37% of the markers placed by fans of the Wadden Sea coastal area are within the protected UNESCO World Heritage limits, suggesting that a broader demarcation could be possible. Conclusions We discuss how the identification of fans can potentially contribute to more effective public involvement in the governance of valuable landscapes.

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The urban and the rural are increasingly interconnected. Rural areas have become places of consumption, as leisure and recreation have become important functions of rural areas. There are also indications that increased urbanisation even leads to a stronger appreciation of green areas situated far beyond city limits. Rural areas with their highly valued natural amenities nowadays seem increasingly to host urban wellbeing, given the positive relation found between green areas and human wellbeing. We provide empirical evidence for this urban-rural interconnection, using results from a survey in the Netherlands. In addition to their attachment to local and regional green places, survey results show that residents of the capital city of Amsterdam have a high appreciation of a wide range of natural, rural places throughout the country. We argue that these (until now invisible) urban-rural ties should be made more visible because these natural areas enjoyed by urban residents can no longer be taken for granted. Financial and other support for nature conservation are therefore needed. However, to organise support for nature can often be problematic because nature is a public good and collective action is often difficult to launch. The invisible and distant ties of urban dwellers for rural areas complicate the task even more. Nevertheless, it is increasingly recognised that the Internet opens many doors for community building and may help to overcome the "illogic" of collective action. In the research project "Sympathy for the Commons", we aim to investigate the possibilities provided by the internet by building online communities around nature areas and enquiring into the available support and funding that these communities can provide.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the relationship between sense of place and the governance of nature parks. Sense of place has been well researched, including in protected areas, but its relationship to and influence on the governance structure of a protected area has received little attention thus far. Over the last few years, the concept of (regional) governance has been increasingly used with respect to protected areas. It is often stated that governance actually reflects a desire for increased participation of the local population. We argue that regional governance structures will come about more easily in IUCN Category V protected landscapes, where bottom‐up approaches are required and multiple interests have to be taken into account. The findings from a case study on the German Lauenburg Lakes Nature Park, one of the oldest nature parks in Germany, are explored against this background. Today, this nature park faces new challenges (e.g. structural and demographical changes, financial insecurity, weaker legislation, and pressure on nature conservation) and it is important to consider in which direction it wants to develop. More attention to regional governance and sense of place is important to improving the standing and acceptance of the park and to strengthening both regional development and biodiversity protection. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.