The Caribbean is the maritime crossroads between territories that are all quite different from each other, though they have some similar challenges. Guadeloupe shares the same dynamics as these territories, which stretch from Canada to Chile, with the Caribbean in the centre. They are vast, fertile grounds for experimentation intended to make them competitive in global maritime economic development, all while preserving their ecosystems. In the context of the Covid 19 pandemic, which has impacted the economies of the greater Caribbean area, the Port and Maritime Association of Guadeloupe, or the UMEP (Union Maritime et Portuaire de la Guadeloupe) and the SEFACIL Foundation, a CEI.BA initiative, wanted to write about creating added value, both in economic and ecological terms.

This Guadeloupean initiative gave rise to the publication of the seventh volume of the Les Océanides series from the SEFACIL Foundation, which offers insight into Port Dynamics in the Caribbean and Latin America. As a member of the Fondation de France, the SEFACIL Foundation uses its publications to bridge the gap between the academic community and the operational spheres of global maritime, port and logistics industries.

Co-led by Yann Alix, Chief Delegate of the SEFACIL Foundation, Michèle Montantin and José M. Pages Sanchez, the publication Port Dynamics in the Caribbean and Latin America includes a special section on Guadeloupe. Guadeloupe’s shipping community supports a shared vision whereby initiatives and innovations play out in its territory as a result of efforts from port, maritime and logistics players in the Caribbean basin. Because the international publication includes contributions from 68 experts across 12 different nationalities, it was printed in English to best address a global audience.

From the start of the project, the UMEP wanted to use the Guadeloupe Special to promote the archipelago. It thus targets a French-speaking audience and is prefaced by Annick Girardin, Minister of the Sea, Sébatien Lecornu, Minister of the Overseas (already so in the international version) and Ary Chalus, President of the Guadeloupe Regional Authority. This publication was made possible thanks to the support of the UMEP’s exceptional partners: BRED Banque Populaire, CEI.BA, CMA-CGM, Guadeloupe Maritime Cluster (CMG), Guadeloupe Port Caraïbes, Customs Agents and Forwarders Union in Guadeloupe (SCDTG).

You will find the following contributions in the section dedicated to Guadeloupe:

  1. Michèle MONTANTIN : Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, an innovative shipping community
  2. Sita Narayanan and Jean-Pierre Chalus for Guadeloupe’s Grand Port Maritime: Climate change, a lever of development for the Guadeloupe Port Caraïbe
  3. Christophe Foucault for CEIBA: Digitalisation at the heart of the modernisation of Caribbean logistics: CEIBA’s initiatives
  4. Jean-Baptiste Maisonnave and Oriane Raulet for Regional Maritime Affairs: French overseas Maritime Council in the Caribbean Basin (CMUBA): Governance of maritime public policies on a supra-territorial scale
  5. Eric Foulquier, Yves Montouroy, Pascal-Jean Lopez, Iwan Le Berre and Damien Le Guyader for the West Indies University: The Caribbean Coastal Human-Environment Observatory and the TRAFIC scientific program, a participatory research device on the port fact in the Guadeloupe archipelago
  6. Sylvie Gustave dit Duflo for the Guadeloupe Regional Authority Sargassum: from local understanding to Caribbean synergy, implementation
    of a coordinated strategic framework
  7. Philippe Richard, Didier Greffet, Stéphane Thomas, Guy Nestar, Jean-Christophe Delestrées and Quentin Savignac for the Regional Customs Authority: Customs’ economic action, its regulatory role, the fight against fraud, and its fiscal missions in the French Overseas departments as an economic stakeholder
  8. Guillaume Pfund and Yann Alix: The circular economy in the Caribbean basin: From opportunities for regional policy-making to possibilities for port and logistics communities
  9. Alain Grall and Yann Alix: Port, transport and logistics in the face of natural disasters in Caribbean island environments: from insights to planning and foresight

 

Davina ANGELE,

Project Manager, UMEP

Download the Guadeloupe Special session: https://bit.ly/3FPWl0q