A West Africa Ports Environmental Managers Workshop to fashion out ways of generating co-ordination in the sub-region in the area of proper port environmental management has opened in Tema. The workshop, which brought together industry players in the sub-region, seeks to facilitate a dialogue among managers of port environment on the implications of poor management of ports on the economies of the respective countries. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the workshop, the Executive Co-ordinator of Ports Environment Network Africa (PENAf), Mr Harry Barnes-Dabban, under whose aegis the workshop was organized, said the overall objective of the workshop was to “initiate the rallying of our ports in particular and associated maritime sector operators to take responsibility and appropriate authority for environmental management and protection of our ports and port areas, and hinterland logistics under a common and harmonious framework through a cooperative and collaborative approach, which is believed will bring about both direct and indirect socio-economic and ecological benefits.” He said while Ghana’s ports were operating according to international standards of environmental management, the same could not be said about other ports that are linked to Ghana’s. This linkage, according to him, made it imperative for the country to ensure that measures were put in place by its neighbours to improve on the environmental performance at their ports. Mr Barnes-Dabban said issues relating to environmental safety and security were complex and “traverse through all forms of pollution ranging from water, land and air to cover issues of biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation, energy and water use, noise, odour nuisance, waste management, sustainable land use among others and requiring a commitment to corporate social responsibility. For most of our ports, one sees the management of environmental issues fragmented among various departments; harbor master, administration, technical, engineering etc without any coordinating responsibility. The best for some is an environment committee as though it is an ad-hoc subject.” He said his resolve, through PENAf, to create the platform to put the issue of port environmental management on the front burner for discussion, was because while conducting research on the topic: Implications of Seaport Activities on the Urban Environment - The case for Port of Tema, sometime ago, “I realized how the issue of environment though relatively a new subject then across the globe, had not started receiving the needed attention in our part of the world.”