Environmental Management and Monitoring in African Ports: An Exploratory Practitioner-Based Self-Diagnosis and Research Agenda

Environmental management and monitoring are essential for translating sustainability goals into operational practices in port systems. However, empirical evidence on how these processes are implemented in African ports remains limited, partly because comparable environmental management data are rarely available across ports. This exploratory study examines reported sustainability priorities, EMS-related organisational practices, and environmental monitoring arrangements in African ports using a structured practitioner-based self-diagnosis survey. Data were collected from 18 environmental managers, each representing one port, during a dedicated professional workshop. The analysis combines importance scoring of predefined sustainability items, binary self-reported information on EMS-related practices, and qualitative coding of open-ended responses on monitoring indicators, responsible entities, methodologies, and implementation challenges. The results should not be interpreted as statistically representative of African ports as a whole. Rather, they provide preliminary, practitioner-based evidence on recurring patterns and constraints reported by the participating ports. The findings suggest that core EMS-related elements, such as objectives, legal compliance, operational control, and monitoring, are more frequently reported than strategic and resource-intensive practices, including climate change integration, sustainability planning, and green services to shipping. Monitoring practices appear largely compliance-oriented, periodic, and dependent on external actors, reflecting reported constraints related to finance, technical expertise, equipment, and institutional coordination. The study contributes exploratory evidence from an under-researched regional context and develops tentative propositions for future research on environmental management capacity, monitoring integration, and sustainability transitions in African port systems.