Sustainable Management for European Local Ports
This project will help smaller ports and the local authorities managing them to address environmental issues. Most EU ports are small ports often combining shipping, fishing and leisure activities. Despite their small size they have important economic, social and environmental links with their surroundings. Together, the thousands of European local ports have a large cumulative impact. They face environmental challenges from EU policy and legislation, and higher expectations from their users and local residents, but they lack the tools to respond to these challenges. The aim of "SuPorts" is to help local ports to design better environmental strategies and to have easy access to suitable environmental management tools in order for them to remain competitive and to contribute to a more sustainable EU.
The project proposes 2 axis: 
- an exchange of experience to identify and promote better practice in the fields of dredging, protecting the marine biodiversity and involving stakeholders;
and the development of environmental management tools appropriate for smaller ports.

Partners will work together to customize existing environmental management tools, such as self-diagnosis, indicators, and environmental management systems, that have been developed for large ports or other fields, to produce easy and ready-to-use tools that are relevant for use by local ports. Better practice by larger and leading-edge, small ports will be identified and tools developed for use by local ports and local authorities to encourage them to be pro-active environmental players: designing and implementing innovative environmental and port policies.
The interregional partnership is led by the Seine-Maritime County Council (FR), and is the right mix of policy-making local authorities and public port autorities with operational experience. They will be supported by a few experts and disseminators to enable better practice to be broadcast around Europe.
7 countries are represented covering the Atlantic Ocean, the Channel as well as Mediterranean, North, Baltic and Egean Seas.

Over three years, the partners, supported by experts, will share and identify better practice, as well as test and formalize methodological tools. Activities will include trainings, studies, workshops, field work and the drafting of easy-to-read technical documentation. The results of this work will put at the disposal of all European local ports, practical guides on how to design and implement sustainable strategies and environmental management tools. These deliverables will be made available on-line and in paper formats, but also disseminated by Europe-wide confererences, local dissemination events in different languages and through a network of trainers.

To sum it up, "SuPorts" aims at promoting "Sustainable management in European local Ports".