Ports provide millions of jobs to people throughout the world and are key players in the blue economy, including in the continuous training and education of their workers and future workers on issues related to this. The Port of Kribi (Cameroon) has signed an agreement with the University of Yaoundé I to pool the skills of employees, teachers, and students to do research in the environmental field. The Port of Dublin (Ireland) continues providing the Dublin Port Scholarship Programme to local communities. Port of Montreal (Canada) supports women to develop their talents with the A Effect training program. Training will have to also be placed first for seafarers as thousands are due for carbon upskilling in the coming years due to the decarbonization of the shipping industry and new technologies.

Waterfront parks open the port to the public and make the interface appealing. In Yantai (China), a new Seafront Garden will be developed to reimagine the coastal area of the port city. The garden will include water conservation sites, a sponge-city district, and a residential shoreline to both restore the natural coastline and promote urban development towards the port. In the United States, the Hudson Waterfront Park is being redesigned to save it from the rising Hudson River and by adding public amenities such as a pedestrian plaza. The Port of Oakland (USA) welcomes back students to its waterfront park for their on-site education program for the first time since the pandemic.

Currently in San Diego Bay, and soon in Humboldt Bay, the company Sunken Seaweed is growing seaweed for food. The seaweed is environmentally-friendly and profitable for the F&B industry, but is also used for animal feed. The San Diego port authority is keen to develop this sector, in line with Goal No. 7 of the AIVP 2030 Agenda: “quality food for all”. It is investing directly in the company over the long-term, with plans in place until 2048!

The EU and the French Development Agency AFD are supporting Port Autonome de Pointe-Noire in its plans to build a new artisanal fishing port. The new infrastructure’s landing stage will be better integrated into the city centre. Local fishers will be able to moor around twenty boats and unload their catches safely. An industrial fishing port will be built at the same time, a short distance away. Eiffage will construct nearly 400 metres of wharves with the aim of allowing fish resources to be exploited sustainably as part of an organised approach.

Port areas offer some of the greatest canvases for urban artists. The case of Brussels (Belgium) is an excellent example, where port neighbor and artist Antoine Caramalli has been developing his œuvre. Caramalli’s artwork, large scale portraits of the inhabitants close to the port, are hanging on Brussel’s canals and contribute to his artistic mission to occupy public space with works that question our use of this urban environment.  The case of Paris (France) is another key example. There, the artist Hydrane has been invited by HAROPA Ports to create a colorful street-art work on the new rail infrastructure on the waterfront until the construction is resumed in summer 2023. Another example is in Dublin (Ireland), where the Port Authority is supporting the Dublin Book Festival with a beautiful mural on the Great South Wall illustrated by the artist Andrew Greaves.