The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) is calling for stakeholder comments and recommendations on its proposed unified policy on port environment management, which seeks to address the lack of a comprehensive and sustainable strategy to protect the ports’ natural ecosystem while promoting sea trade growth at the same time.

The draft “PPA Port Environment Code of 2024” (PPEC) aims to provide a strategic framework and tool for the agency to holistically manage and measure its ports’ environmental performance, according to PPA official Nino Paolo Biscocho in his presentation at a recent public consultation on the policy proposal.

“It aims to ensure that port performance gaps are managed and actions to be implemented respond to current and future challenges in the ports’ environment,” Biscocho said.

The PPEC, also called the PPA Green Code, will provide in a single comprehensive document all the relevant information and requirements needed for compliance to achieve proper port environmental management, accurate performance measurement and improved port environmental performance.

The PPEC was developed in view of the continued increase in global sea trade volume, a situation that presents ports with the immense challenge of future-proofing their capacity to receive cargoes and vessels efficiently while trying to reduce the adverse impact on the natural environment of the round-the-clock port operations.

Challenges faced by ports

The Code seeks to address the challenges Philippine ports face such as a fragmented or compartmentalized approach, lack of sustainability, lack of link between performance and strategy, wrong compliance attitude, climate change, poor disaster and risk reduction responses, and absence of port-specific documents in managing the port environment.

It also intends to integrate and align PPA’s environmental programs and initiatives with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Philippine Development Plan, and fulfill the obligations of ports under international treaties on environment-related challenges such as maritime and air pollution, waste management, climate change, environmental sustainability and risk reduction and management.

“There is a need for a sustainable, integrated, and dynamic PPA policy in the environmental management of ports,” stressed Biscocho.

The PPEC noted that there are more than 200 PPA-operated ports and more than 190 active private ports nationwide, and their impacts cannot be assessed despite the numerous PPA rules and regulations on the environment and the implementation of several environmental programs and activities.

Sound management of ports’ environment

“Therefore, to attain sound management of the ports’ environment, a connection must be established between the projected demand for the use of PPA ports and how to manage the potential adverse impacts that the increase in port activities would create on the natural ecosystems where Philippine ports exist and operate,” it said.

Drafted for about three years, between May 2021 and September 2024, the Green Code was presented for public scrutiny on 8 October 2024 and is expected to be approved by the end of October by the PPA Board of Directors.

Catherine Esto, port manager of the Port Management Office-NCR South, said affected industries and businesses have until 15 October, 2024 to submit their official position papers on the draft PPEC.