Who we are

Land stewardship

In line with leading practice, we always aim to rehabilitate land as it comes out of mining use rather than waiting until all operations at the site have ceased. Rio Tinto manages 36,900 square kilometres of land, excluding our exploration leases. Just over four per cent of this area was disturbed for mining purposes in 2007 and by the end of the year more than a quarter of the disturbed land was rehabilitated.

Land stewardship means matching the current and potential uses of land we manage, with ecological and social values, tenure, customary ownership and community expectations regarding development.

Our leading policy and technical position on land stewardship has resulted in invitations to participate in a number of international and national policy development forums. Rio Tinto is also playing a significant role in bilateral initiatives with organisations such as the World Conservation Union.

As a member of the International Council on Mining and Metals, we help develop industry policies and practices on protected areas and long term access to land. We are working with the World Resources Institute to assess ecosystem services in site rehabilitation. We are also working on a UNESCO project to identify best practice for assessing decisions about land use options and access while taking a regional view on landscape planning, rather than just a local view of the land within a project area.