At the waterfront

Because many overlapping policies have been developed to protect the environment surrounding the ports, there are various levels of challenge where the twin needs for development and environmental protection meet.

Further, there is a need for an early integration of environmental issues in port development projects. If these are not taken into account at a sufficiently early stage, delays and even cancellation of projects could occur.

To answer this, the Environmental Guidelines for Ports are being developed, with a view to bringing areas of policy and practicalities together while clarifying some of the legal uncertainties.

Firstly, ports require both adequate facilities and appropriate connections with the hinterland. Some ports and port equipment were simply not conceived nor built to accommodate the latest generation of ships of all cargo types, and indeed containers; let alone the volume of traffic. And since the modal shift away from road transport towards the more sustainable inland waterways or maritime navigation has been positively identified, there may be yet more traffic passing through high-value natural areas.

There is also the need to consider adequate port infrastructure in order to ensure a better energy security of supply and enhance competitiveness of those industries. They may also constitute alternatives to traditional supply infrastructure.

Further, it is sometimes necessary to redevelop the port area of the city, or shift the port industry and related hinterland traffic, for environmental and security reasons, away from the city-centre.

Therefore, the need to increase port capacity has to be consistent with the respect of key environmental issues, at national, regional and at local levels. This means that policies for balancing economic and environmental impacts must take into account the effects of ports on inland transport and also the effects of ports and port-related industry on the urban environment.

Port and waterways projects may be located nearby high-value natural areas. Some of those values are protected by environmental legislation as the Birds, the Habitats and the Water Framework Directives. In addition, four more directives guarantee the access of third parties to any decision making process toward the approval of projects: the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive, the Environmental Information Directive and the Environmental Participation Directive.

The Birds Directive is the EU’s oldest piece of nature legislation and one of the most important, creating a comprehensive scheme of protection for all wild bird species naturally occurring in the Union.

Adopted in 1979 as a response to increasing concern about the declines in Europe's wild bird populations resulting from pollution, loss of habitats as well as unsustainable land use, the directive recognises that habitat loss and degradation are the most serious threats to the conservation of wild birds and migratory species, especially through the establishment of a coherent network of Special Protection Areas (SPAs) comprising all the most suitable territories for these species, which now are an integral part of the Natura 2000 ecological network of protected sites.

The Habitats Directive aims to promote the maintenance of biodiversity, taking account of economic, social, cultural and regional requirements, and so it makes a contribution to the more general objective of sustainable development.

So, the Habitats and the Birds Directives together form the cornerstone of Europe's nature conservation policy.

The application of these directives call for better planning during a port’s construction processes. And as mentioned before, there is a need for embedding environmental issues into port development projects at a sufficiently early stage, in order to avoid delays and cancellations. So, it is essential to bring the conservation objectives of those Natura 2000 sites which are affected by port development projects into the plans at the very start.

Key to success of any port development project are: a long-term planning of new port capacity, providing road and rail infrastructure in time while taking into account modal shift and CO2 emissions, and reducing the impact on Natura 2000 sites through mitigation and, if that is not possible, through compensation measures.

Moreover, before planning a port expansion the question of possible productivity gains in existing facilities should be raised. By improving productivity and efficiency port congestion and the need for expansion may be reduced. This might even be a less costly option than an expansion.

Finally, some industry initiatives to share best environmental practices and to exchange experiences are ECOPORTS , PARALIA or the "Green Award" . These, as well as the ESPO Code of Practice on the Birds and Habitats Directives are good examples of partnership aiming at spreading ecological awareness among port industry. Environmental accounting, reporting (standards disclosers) and auditing and certifying (EMAS, ISO 14001, PERS and others) are becoming common practice in industry and ports are not an exception.

A more political cover document will accompany the guidelines. It will put the guidelines in their political context and highlight the port sector's commitment to and achievements in biodiversity conservation in the EU. Based on a holistic and common approach both from the transport and the environment policies' perspective, the guidelines aim at clarifying some of the difficulties arising from multiple-policy areas.

José Fernandez Garcia, of the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy and Transport Maritime Transport & Ports Policy; Maritime Security. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and they do not reflect in any way those of the institution to which he is employed.