Towards Nature Positive for the Ocean: Pathways for Port Sector Contributions

Ports are essential to the global economy, but they sit at the frontline of ocean degradation. With port expansion accelerating globally, a fundamental shift in approach is needed to avoid placing additional pressures on already stressed coastal and marine ecosystems.

The WWF report Towards Nature Positive for the Ocean: Pathways for Port Sector Contributions offers practical, science-based pathways to help port planners, developers, operators, and owners credibly contribute to global nature-positive goals: halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 and achieving full recovery by 2050. Published under the Global Environment Facility-funded Greening Transportation Infrastructure Development (GRID) program, the report’s central message is that infrastructure and nature do not need to be competing priorities.

The report provides practical actions for embedding nature into every stage of the port life cycle. Drawing on the AR3T framework—Avoid, Reduce, Restore & Regenerate, and Transform (aligned with the Science Based Targets Network)—the report outlines pathways for the port industry to avoid and reduce impacts, restore and regenerate ecosystems, and transform broader systems.