Workshop evaluates trilateral cooperation between ports and green NGOs

On 29 June 2022, some Partnership Hub Shipping Project partners, in collaboration with the Wadden Seaports, organized an online workshop with representatives of ports and eNGOs from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. The goal of the workshop was to evaluate and reflect on the opportunity of a trilateral cooperation between ports and green NGOs (eNGOs), aiming at safeguarding the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the Wadden Sea World Heritage.

In order to establish this trilateral cooperation, experiences and lessons learned from earlier collaborations were reflected upon. Hence, in the first part of the online workshop presentations were given on the Pact of Marrum (between Dutch ports and eNGOs) and on the Letter of Intent on a trilateral maritime co-operation to promote environmental efforts between the Dutch, German and Danish Wadden Sea Ports.

The second part of the online workshop focused on opportunities and challenges related to a future trilateral cooperation. During this part, all participants had the opportunity to share their perspectives and opinions. An outcome is e.g. that in order to cooperate successfully, building mutual trust and understanding is necessary. "This process takes time, because without trust, a long-term collaboration is difficult", says Maarten Verdaasdonk, Project Leader Clean Shipping – Stichting De Noordzee. "After we succeed to build trust, it will be important to determine pre-defined and measurable outcomes, so we can work efficiently and will be able to assess the collaboration and process afterwards."

The information shared during this online workshop will be used in the coming months to investigate how the intended trilateral cooperation could be set up and which goals should be achieved.