Represented by its Executive Director, Otto G. Noack, COCATRAM attended the 1st Blue Forum on a Sustainable Caribbean Sea. This event, held in Cartagena de Indias from October 20 to 24, 2025, aimed to promote awareness and collective action toward marine sustainability in the Caribbean region.
The Blue Forum seeks to raise awareness and encourage collective action to preserve marine and coastal ecosystems while addressing the challenges of climate change and maritime and port activities within the context of Blue Growth. This initiative is directly linked to the United Nations 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
As part of this important meeting, COCATRAM participated in the “Green Ports” Panel, which focused on strategically integrating environmental sustainability into port management, operations, and development. Jorge Durán, Chief of the Inter-American Committee on Ports (CIP) Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS), delivered the keynote address at the beginning of the panel. He highlighted the importance of incorporating sustainable practices in the port sector as a pillar of economic and environmental development in the region.
In this session, COCATRAM Executive Director Otto Noack was a panelist alongside Juan Carlos Verdeal Pinto, Secretary General of the Port Authority of Bilbao, Spain, and Estela del Carmen Luck, Sustainability Manager of the Panama Canal Authority. Fernando Magdaleno Mas, Deputy Director General of Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity at Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, moderated the panel.
During his presentation, Noack discussed COCATRAM’s work, emphasizing its role in strengthening the Central American maritime and port sectors. He also highlighted the technical networks and cooperation mechanisms that COCATRAM promotes to foster sustainability, efficiency, and innovation in the region’s ports.
He concluded by emphasizing the institution’s commitment to environmentally responsible management, constructing a regional maritime agenda aligned with the SDGs, participating in international efforts to conserve marine ecosystems, and strengthening a sustainable and inclusive blue economy.