Nature certification first

The Port Authority of Seville (PAS) has received official ‘Working with Nature’ (WwN) certification from the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC) for its ‘Creation of new wetlands for waterfowl in the Guadalquivir estuary from the improvement of navigation’ project.

Rafael Carmona, president of the Port Authority of Seville, said PIANC’s recognition “encourages us to continue advancing in our sustainability strategy, in which we combine the improvement of navigability and the environment and have a positive impact on biodiversity”.

Over 50 species identified

The WwN certification recognises the Port of Seville as the first national port system to apply the ‘Working with Nature’ philosophy, by combining the management of sediments from maintenance dredging deposited in confined disposal facilities with the creation of new habitats that favour the diversity of waterfowl in the estuary.

Thanks to this initiative, the PAS and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) have recorded more than 50 species in the confined disposal facilities of the Port of Seville.

Together with the CSIC, the Port Authority of Seville has given a second life to the sediments extracted from the channel during the last maintenance dredging campaigns. To this end, the protocol has defined the creation of islands and dikes, as well as measures to maintain the water level in the land drains. Among the species observed in the wetlands, four species have been sighted that are catalogued as endangered: the brown pochard, the marbled teal, the crabeater egret and the coot; and one, the osprey, as vulnerable.

The certification is focused on protect, restore or even improve the environment from a project’s conception, rather than simply mitigating the environmental impacts of a project.

Like Seville, other European ports have incorporated the ‘Working with Nature’ model into their environmental strategy. One example is the port of Le Havre, which has worked on the rehabilitation of the Seine estuary; another is the port of Antwerp with actions in the Scheldt River.