Coasts and oceans

We often forget that the current structure of maritime transport has a significant impact on coastal ecosystems. This structure, obeying a centralized architecture, favors a network of a few large ports on every continent, to the detriment of a more distributed mesh, allowing the ports of medium and small to survive. The consequences of this global structure are manifold:

• The sites of major ports are largely artificial, over hundreds of square kilometers, to the detriment of these environments are fragile and valuable coastal ecosystems.
• Maritime transport calls over a considerable level surface transportation byf trucks crisscrossing the continents.
• Ports of small and medium size see their activity stifled by unfair competition from major ports, whose negative costs are not internalized.

The association Rio +20 proposes to consider this issue through specific studies and experiments aiming at finding solutions that articulate a global perspective, the Great Transition, with solutions adapted to local regional and national contexts.

• Back to the list of topics

This post is also available in: French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil)