Enhancement of Joint Environmental Actions at the Ports of the Cross-border Area Corfu-Igoumenitsa-Sarande

The project aims at ensuring the protection and restoration of European marine ecosystems in border areas of Greece and Albania, preparing common environmental perception by establishing and implementing joint procedures, practices, policies and actions with respect to National, European and International Laws and ensuring ecological sustainability of economic activities associated with the marine environment.
The primary objective of the project is:
- to enable joint approaches to common problems that the ports deal with,
- to adopt common environmental practices among the 3 ports through developing, implementing and financing joint environmental actions.
- To strengthen and promote cross border collaboration, transfer of knowledge and exchange of experience firstly among the partners through the development and implementation of joint environmental actions resulting to sustainable development of the area and lastly among people of the area and beyond.
The main project's geographical scope is to develop joint environmental practices in the triangle area covered by the cities of Corfu, Igoumenitsa and Saranda, in order to support the prevention from unwilling situations, pollutions, irrational natural resources waste.In general, the overall expected results of the projects are foreseen to be the following:1)the consensus that will be reached by the project partners with respect to the environmental issues arising in the area,providing a clearer focus on the protection, conservation and sustainable use of the area’s marine environment with a view to sustainable development;2)the enhancement of joint environmental actions that will also take into account human activities;3)the prevention of environmental accidents by means of coordinated actions,such as:the installation of proper equipment for water management, the supply of depollution float dam, the proper measurement of air and seawater quality, the planning of emergency situations, the adoption of improved energy efficient systems and the installation of fire extinguishers;4)the implementation of infrastructure works, as planting trees and extensive road works along the marine for noise reduction;5)a significant raise in the quality of living standards for residents of the town and the region near the ports;6)raised levels of awareness and stimulation of both local people and visitors/tourists (summing up to more than 1,4 million per year only in LP1) about environmental issues via the web forum, information leaflets, conferences and, finally, the establishment of an Environmental Information Kiosk at Corfu Port; the latter will provide useful information about the local climate, environmental actions taken by each port, environmental news, location of recycling bins in the area, etc,7)a considerable improvement of the environmental performance by means of the certification for the Environmental Management System;8) the development of the Environmental Information System used to electronically manage and control sea water/air, etc. measurements, to measure water pipe flows, to facilitate experience exchange, to transfer knowledge via e-libraries and the forum, to provide historical data to the general public etc.