How Marine Insurance Drives Proactive Port Risk Strategy

A vessel may set sail with an experienced captain, a trained crew, modern technology, and a carefully planned route. A terminal may operate with sophisticated security systems, digital processes, and increasingly automated infrastructure, while a company may have visibility over its cargo from origin to destination. Even so, none of these elements can eliminate uncertainty altogether. 

That was one of the main reflections emerging from the International Maritime-Port Forum Costa Rica 2026, held in Puntarenas from Sept. 9 to 11 and organized by the Red PBIP México Internacional Civil Association, together with the Inter-American Committee on Ports of the Organization of American States (CIP-OAS). The event brought together authorities, specialists, and delegations from 16 countries, while Red PBIP marked 21 years of bringing together professionals linked to maritime and port security.

The conversation, however, went far beyond port security in the traditional sense. Geopolitical tensions, changing maritime routes, organized crime, cyberattacks, digitalization, automation, and the growing interdependence of supply chains are transforming the way maritime risk is understood. Protecting a port today no longer means simply controlling physical access; it means protecting infrastructure, people, technology, information, vessels, cargo, and above all, operational continuity. This reality also forces us to rethink who should be part of the conversation and at what stage they should become involved.

A New Alliance for Maritime Resilience

For many years, the insurance ecosystem has tended to enter the conversation with greater force after something has already gone wrong: a loss occurs, a claim is filed, damage is assessed, liabilities are analyzed, and recovery begins. That role remains essential, but it represents only part of what insurance can contribute. Every claim also generates knowledge, because it reveals how losses occur, where vulnerabilities exist, which conditions increase frequency or severity, and what decisions may reduce the impact of a future event. The real opportunity is to bring that learning to the moment before the loss.

Modern maritime and port risk management therefore requires an alliance between the public sector, private industry, and the insurance ecosystem. The public sector contributes regulation, intelligence, oversight, and institutional capacity; private industry understands operations, infrastructure, processes, and the realities of moving vessels, cargo, and people every day; and the insurance ecosystem brings experience in risk assessment, loss patterns, financial consequences, recovery, and continuity. None can replace the others, but when all three work together, risk management can evolve from a predominantly reactive discipline into a true strategy of prevention and resilience.

This approach also requires the insurance industry itself to broaden its perspective. It is not enough to ask how much a shipment is worth or how much an insurer would have to pay if it were lost. We also need to consider damage to ports and terminals, vessel casualties, hull and machinery exposures, Protection and Indemnity (P&I), liabilities involving shipowners, captains, operators, and terminals, as well as the risks faced by crews and all professionals who make maritime operations possible every day.

A single maritime incident can create multiple consequences at once. A collision may damage a vessel, affect port infrastructure, injure crew members, interrupt operations, generate third-party liability, create environmental impacts, and delay cargo across the supply chain. A cyberattack may stop systems without physically damaging a facility; severe weather may close a port; an accident may take a vessel out of service; and a security incident may affect not only one shipment, but an entire logistics corridor.

The question, therefore, should not be only: How much will a loss cost? It should also be: How do we keep a port operating after an event? How long will a vessel need to return to service? How are liabilities managed? How do we protect people? How do we protect crews, whose safety is constantly exposed throughout the voyage and maritime operation? And what can we do today so that tomorrow’s loss is less severe?

That is where insurance stops being only a financial response and becomes part of a broader architecture of resilience.

The Sea, One of Our First Teachers of Risk

For thousands of years, when human beings chose to sail beyond the horizon — to explore, trade, or connect territories — they faced a fundamental uncertainty: What happens if the vessel, the crew, or the cargo never reaches its destination? Storms, shipwrecks, fires, collisions, and piracy could destroy goods, vessels, and fortunes and, in the worst cases, cost human lives. Long before the modern insurance industry existed, mechanisms emerged to distribute those risks, and over time marine insurance became one of the historical roots of modern insurance.

The lesson remains valid today: we can study a route, build better vessels, incorporate more technology, train crews, and strengthen procedures, but uncertainty can never be eliminated completely. Insurance exists not because risk disappears, but because it can be anticipated, managed, financed, and shared. Behind every vessel that sails is a shipowner committing capital, a captain assuming responsibility, a crew going to sea, and companies depending on operations continuing as planned.

Insurance helps transform part of that uncertainty into confidence. It does not calm the storm, take the helm, or operate the terminal, but it can help ensure that after a disruption, people and companies have a path toward recovery. In that sense, insurance becomes an invisible force protecting what moves the world.

Costa Rica and the Union of the Oceans

One of the most representative moments of the forum was the technical visit to Puerto Caldera, where expansion and modernization projects for this strategic piece of Costa Rica’s foreign trade infrastructure were presented. The visit also included the traditional “Union of the Oceans” ceremony, together with members of the Philippe Cousteau Foundation, reaffirming a shared commitment to preserving the marine environment.

The symbolism was especially fitting for Costa Rica, a country with a maritime vocation that looks toward both the Pacific and the Caribbean. But the ceremony can also be understood as an image of what took place throughout the forum: countries, authorities, companies, ports, security professionals, logistics experts, academia, and insurers meeting around common objectives. The program also included a nautical tour of the Gulf of Nicoya and cultural performances by students from the National Technical University, reminding us that behind ports, vessels, and operations there are also communities, history, identity, and people.

From the Port of Manzanillo, Mexico, to Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica

The ceremony concluded with a particularly emotional moment: the presentation of unique pieces from the Keeper Cargo Insurance commemorative collection honoring the 200th anniversary of the Port of Manzanillo. The pieces are handcrafted containers featuring an image of the Port of Manzanillo, created by Casa Panduro as an expression of Jalisco’s pottery tradition and the cultural heritage of the land of mariachi, tequila, and charrería.

The pieces were presented by Alanna Curiel, Business Development Manager, and myself as Director of Business Development at Keeper Cargo Insurance, to Captain Miguel Ángel Osuna Rodríguez, President of Red PBIP México Internacional A.C.; Captain Carlos Nicolás Lamboglia Scarpin, Secretary General; Captain Miguel Ángel Osuna Terán, Board Member; Marvin Sibaja Vanderlucht, Director of the Maritime-Port Division of Costa Rica’s Ministry of Public Works and Transport; and Ángel Fabián Meneses Garro, Ph.D., Director of Costa Rica’s Directorate of Navigation and Aquatic Safety.

The recognitions were conceived as a tribute from the heart, because some gifts are delivered by hand but born from emotion. Each piece represents much more than a craft object: the container symbolizes world trade; Manzanillo represents two centuries of Mexican port history; and Jalisco clay reflects the ability to transform simple elements into something meant to endure.

Pottery itself also offers a metaphor for risk management. It requires balance among earth, water, air, and fire: earth represents our roots; water, flexibility; air, patience; and fire, the force that transforms something fragile into something capable of lasting. In a way, these pieces did exactly what a container was designed to do: they crossed borders carrying something from Mexico safely to port.

A Strong Mexican Presence

Mexico also had a significant presence at the forum, both in the number of attendees and in the participation of specialists within the program. Mexican contributions addressed port digitalization, the ISPS Code, hybrid threats, electronic security, port modernization, and logistics and supply chain risk management.

That participation reflected the diversity of Mexican institutions, companies, areas of expertise, and generations represented in the same international setting. A photograph of the Mexican delegation captures that presence and highlights an important point: the value of these meetings does not lie only in attending them, but in ensuring that the knowledge shared goes beyond the conference rooms and becomes better practices, new collaborative relationships, and a stronger culture of prevention.

In that sense, Mexico’s presence at Costa Rica 2026 was also an opportunity to build bridges among ports, companies, authorities, specialists, and disciplines facing common risks. In an increasingly interconnected maritime environment, security and risk management also depend on our ability to share knowledge across borders.

Knowledge Before the Loss

Another of the forum’s major strengths was its ability to take knowledge beyond the conference agenda. Costa Rica 2026 created space to share specialized documents and works on logistics risk management, crime prevention, supply chains, transportation, and insurance. In this context, Mexico was represented from the perspective of logistics risk management and supply chain protection, through my participation, with an approach focused on prevention, insurance, and operational continuity.

Among the materials presented and shared were The Art of Managing Logistics Risks. Practical Manual: From Prevention and Insurance to Adjustment and Subrogation. From the Editorial Direction of Keeper Cargo Insurance; the Eighth Edition of the Security Tool for Supply Chain Stakeholders. Guidelines for Crime Prevention from the Business Security Front (FESEM), Criminal Investigation Directorate and INTERPOL (DIJIN), Colombian National Police; and the Book: Liability of the Road Freight Carrier in Ibero-America by the Latin American Association of Marine Underwriters (ALSUM).

Sharing this type of work in an international forum helps build a bridge between security and insurance, but above all, it turns experience into applicable knowledge. Theft, accidents, casualties, interruptions, and other losses leave lessons that become more valuable when they are transformed into tools that help anticipate risk, reduce vulnerabilities, and make better decisions before a loss occurs.

For the insurance ecosystem, this shift in perspective is essential. An insurer that understands an operation better can underwrite it better; an underwriter that identifies vulnerabilities can establish better conditions; a claims adjuster who properly analyzes causes can generate lessons that help prevent recurrence; a broker who understands the risk can provide better advice; and an organization that integrates prevention, insurance, and continuity will be better prepared to respond and recover when disruption eventually occurs.

In other words, insurance should not only be the financial response when something goes wrong; it should also be part of the architecture that helps fewer things go wrong in the first place. This is not about replacing authorities, shipowners, ports, or operators, but about turning accumulated claims experience into knowledge that supports better decisions.

That is ultimately the value of this new alliance between the public sector, private industry, and the insurance ecosystem: each acting from its own responsibilities, but sharing the same purpose of protecting navigation, ports, people, liabilities, and everything that keeps global trade moving.

Because every cargo has a destination, every vessel needs a safe port, and every great voyage requires something before it can begin: confidence.

Costa Rica 2026 has concluded, but the conversation continues. Merida, Yucatan, in Mexico, will host the International Maritime-Port Forum PBIP 2027, opening a new opportunity to turn shared knowledge into better practices, stronger prevention, safer operations, and more resilient supply chains.

From Puntarenas to Merida, the next voyage has already begun.