CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

Shipping has been  a global business and during the last 40 years the world seaborne trade has increased with 450% from 6000 to 28,000 billion ton miles. This means that almost 90% of the world trade volumes are transported  by sea and a large number of ships have to carry the cargo between different ports. This gives a clear indication of the likelihood that every year ships will get caught in situations involving terrorism, piratical or other criminal activities which require a professional and international legal system supporting the ships and the port facilities in this type of situations.

The issue of piracy, is not a new phenomenon, but rather an old act which has been existing in the shipping cycle,  because the first recorded act of this type of action against ships was found in early Greek myths (1200-700 BC) when the Greek King Inachus daughter was kidnapped in the Mediterranean port of Argos. This led to the Great War between the Persians and the Greeks.  At that time, a group of people who acted as pirates were often driven by a primitive motive, namely to acquire wealth. The pirates in those days could just be pirates or they could be warriors coming on ships from a battlefield who kidnap and the merchant ships for slaves and provisions to compensate for the loss of manpower during the war. They could also be warriors travelling by ships to a battlefield, in desperate need of provision or manpower to fighting the war. In addition, already in the Ming Dynasty (years 1368-1644) the Chinese tried to enforce laws against piracy and other criminal activities in the maritime trade between China and Japan. In the middle of the sixteenth century the emperor took action against piracy and enforced a law to protect the ships trading on the coast of China. First of all, every person involved in piracy was condemned to death penalty. The second action against piracy was limitations in the trade to China only; one company could trade between the two countries. The final attempt to restrict the violence and the piracy against the ships was to have heavy armed imperial navy ships supervising the coastline of China.

The initial motive of fighting against this violent group of people called pirated, was to ensure the safety of people and cargo navigating through the high seas, and increase the security of ships and port security facilities.

The ISPS Code is a set of measures to enhance the security of ships and port facilities. It was developed in response of the perceived threats to ships and port facilities after the 9/11 attacks which took place in the United States (IMO). Development and implementation was sped up drastically in reaction to the September 11, 2001 attacks and the bombing of the French oil tanker Limburg. The ISPS Code is part of the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) and compliance is mandatory for the 148 Contracting Parties to SOLAS.The ISPS Code was adopted by one of the resolutions that was adopted on 12 December 2002 by the Conference of Contracting Governments to the SOLAS, 1974 (London, 9 to 13 December 2002). The measures that were being agreed under the code, were then brought into force on July 1, 2004, and contained detailed security requirements for for government, port authorities, and shipping companies in a mandatory section. Part A is mandatory and Part B is recommendatory. Part A is concerned with contract on the government responsibility for the setting of  security level, declaration of security, obligation of shipping companies, ship security, ship security assessment, company and ship security officer, port facility security and etc. Part B takes into account post implementation of Chapter XI-2 of SOLAS and provisions of Part A, as Part B is only recommendatory in nature.

Security levels have been implemented at the port of Douala. According to the Port Authority of Douala, the port shall be secured by a perimeter fence of 20 kilometres and above, lit and protected by a video surveillance. Access into and out of the port is monitored. The port Authority has limited access in the Douala sea port to workers of authorized companies, with access cards issued by officials of the port, while visitors on foot will only get in through the main gate after being authorized. Vehicles of all persons without any exception will be subject to search when moving in and out ( Cameroon tribune 6 July 2004 parliamentary order). All this are part of the safety measures to ensure the safety and security of ships at the port of Douala. Access into the port is granted only to those holding badges, as well as to vehicles who display a badge. All this out in place work hand to hand with the implementation of the ISPS code at the port of Douala.

This study therefore focuses on the effects of the implementation of the ISPS Code at the port of Douala and its importance to its performance. In Cameroon, we have ports like Douala, Limbe and Kribi. The Douala port which happens to be the busiest in Central Africa with about 1.26 billion tons of cement and 135000 tons of fish imported yearly.

1.2. Delimitation of the study.

Even though the ISPS code has been implemented at the port of Douala, which serves  as a natural hub in the CEMAC region, due to its strategic location, inefficiency at the port is a major constraints to its growth. The problem is that, the Douala port lacks adequate safety and security infrastructure. This lack of good infrastructure is drastically slowing down the gaols or objectives set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on safety and security within the port.  Other than inefficiency, poor governance and polices, and malfunctioning regulatory systems, are also a big problem. The implementation of the ISPS code in the port of Douala, has led to an increase in safety and security. But if the implementation of the ISPS code is poor, it will lead to an increase in cargo dwell times, due to security checks in conformity to the ISPS code. As a consequence of this delay, the supply chain in interrupted because it’s key principle is “JUST IN TIME” and this in turn leads to a drop in performance. Therefore, there will be the need to adjust the working system, to remedy the situation.

1.3. Statement of Problem

The scope of the research is to explore the history of the  implementation of the ISPS code in the port of Douala, and the Economic development of the nation, by enforcing best practices. This study is to appraise the implementation of the ISPS code at the port of Douala, and the effect on port performance. By designing and considering security and safety provisions, the vulnerability of a system can somehow be addressed. However, despite all provisions, there is no security and safety system which is 100% trustworthy. Therefore, resilience of a system is an issue, which shall be considered while implementing risk assessment. The transportation system especially maritime, is vulnerable. Maritime transportation is vulnerable to some factors like natural disaster, climate change, terrorist attack, piracy, hijacking, insurgency and some other incidents like ship collision or fire. The maritime organizations’ concern is to protect the shipping industry, sea environment and human lives at sea; which MARPOL 1973, SOLAS 1978, OPRC 1990, ISM 1993, and recently ISPS 2002 are some of these efforts by IMO. Therefore, the initial questions to be asked will be how effective is the implementation of the ISPS code in the port of Douala, or how has the new rules implemented affect the ports business operations?, And How the new regulation can make the waterborne transportation, as a part of inter-modal transportation, resilient, strong or successful?.

1.4. Research Question

Following the problem stated above, a number of research questions were being designed by the researcher, which will later on be answered in the work . They include;

1.4.1. Main Research Question

• To what extent has the ISPS code been implemented at the port of Douala?

1.4.2. Specific Research Question

• What are the difficulties faced or hindering the management of the ports, to enhance the ISPS code implementation?
• Has port activities been affected by the implementation of the ISPS code at the port?
• What are the benefits of the implementation of the ISPS code on port performance at the port of Douala?

1.5. Research Objectives

1.5.1 Main Research Objective

• To assess the implementation of the ISPS code on port performance at the port of Douala

1.5.2. Specific Objective

• Examine the challenges encountered as a result of the implementation of the ISPS code in the port of Douala.
• Identify and evaluate the impact of implementing the ISPS code on port activities in Douala.
• To examine the benefits of the implementation of the ISPS code on the performance of the port of Douala.