Biodiversity
Overview
Helping to maintain the diversity of natural life is a responsibility that we take very seriously. We operate in regions throughout the world that are recognised and valued, both locally and globally, for their biodiversity and we are committed to conserving and managing this diversity by reducing our impacts and capitalising on conservation opportunities.
There is now increasing expectation that industry should take a role in conservation management. Our biodiversity strategy enables us to better understand and address identified issues through a sustainable development approach, involving traditional landowners and local communities, governments and local non government organisations (NGOs).
Policies and programmes
Our strategy states that we aim to have a net positive impact (NPI) on biodiversity. We, therefore, need to demonstrate that our actions have positive effects that outweigh the inevitable negative effects of the physical disturbances and changes of land associated with mining.
In 2007, our biodiversity programmes have been focused on two key issues that affect our ability to achieve our goal:
- The development of site-based biodiversity action plans that dictate how we assess and manage our impacts through the mitigation hierarchy: Avoid, Mitigate and Rehabilitate.
- Methodologies for innovative offsetting of residual biodiversity impacts.
The opportunities for minimising negative effects and creating positive outcomes will vary greatly from one project or operating site to another.
As a first step, our operations use mitigation measures, which include actions designed to avoid, minimise and rectify negative impacts. Offsets (sustainable conservation actions) and other conservation actions (capacity building programmes, livelihood initiatives) may then be necessary to compensate for the residual, unavoidable harm to biodiversity and help us to achieve a net positive impact on biodiversity.
NPI is a long term goal and a challenge for us. We are working in partnership with international conservation NGOs, who play a key role in progressing our understanding of biodiversity conservation issues and practical approaches to its management. By working together, we aim to raise the bar within the industry sector as a whole.
Results
We are at a critical stage in the development and implementation of the Biodiversity Strategy. In 2007 we have developed and implemented a process to assess the inherent biodiversity values at each of our sites. We have also significantly progressed our thinking and methodologies on biodiversity action planning and biodiversity offsets. This work has been informed through the use of pilot projects in Africa, Australia and North and South America. Developing these methodologies and tracking performance over time is critical to achieving our biodiversity performance objectives and reporting on our goal of NPI.
We carry out extensive reporting on the effects of our business on biodiversity in the areas in which we operate.
Biodiversity values assessment
Having an understanding of the environment in which we work is a key starting point towards achieving our biodiversity goals.
A 'biodiversity value assessment protocol' was developed in 2007 to assess the inherent biodiversity values of an operation's land holdings and the surrounding area. The protocol assessed operations on:
- Land in proximity to biodiversity-rich habitats
- Species of conservation significance
- Additional site specific context and
- The external conservation context.
The assessment is independent of any management interventions and, as such, a high biodiversity value ranking is not a commentary on the management of biodiversity at an operation.
Grouping operations on this basis into 'very high', 'high' 'medium' and 'low' biodiversity value groupings will enable resources and action planning to be channelled directly to our highest priority operations in the first instance, contributing to our overall goal of achieving NPI.
Seventy three operations were assessed in 2007. Of these, 29 (40 per cent) operations are associated with 'high or very high' biodiversity values, 17 with 'medium' biodiversity values and 27 with 'low' biodiversity values.
Biodiversity assessments
At the end of 2007, 93 percent of our operations (excluding projects and the Rio Tinto Exploration Business) have carried out some form of biodiversity assessment building on the 81 that had done assessments at some stage in their project lifetime, in 2006.
Although 58 per cent of operations recorded carrying out biodiversity assessments, additional to those undertaken as a requirement for environmental impact assessment procedures, we need to further imbed this research and monitoring into operational environmental management. This will include increasing our understanding of how we impact biodiversity, both within and outside our operations, and wider regional biodiversity issues.
Management programmes
We believe that the transfer of the biodiversity knowledge and impact assessment through to biodiversity management plans - either as stand alone action plans or integrated into site environmental management systems - is a critical step in the development of an effective biodiversity management programme.
Land in close proximity to biodiversity-rich habitats
Having an understanding of the location of locally, nationally, regionally or internationally identified areas of biodiversity importance can assist with identifying the extent of impact of company operations on biodiversity-rich or sensitive habitats/ecosystems.
In 2006, 17 of our operations indicated that the area of land that they owned, leased or managed fell within a five km radius of one of the above mentioned protected area systems. In 2007 the radius was increased to ten km and the definition of biodiversity-rich habitats was extended to include sensitive habitats (such as BirdLife International's Important Bird Areas, Alliance for Zero Extinction sites, Important Plant Areas, Natura 2000 sites, and nationally or state threatened ecological communities or critical habitats).
In 2007, 49 operations indicated that they had land within ten kilometres of biodiversity-rich habitats. The total area of this land was 8,158 square kilometres, which represents 22 per cent of our total land holding (excluding our exploration leases). The majority of Rio Tinto land in close proximity to biodiversity-rich habitats is passively managed.
Only 12 per cent has been used for mining, processing and exploration activities
These operations which are in close proximity to biodiversity-rich habitats had identified the risks to biodiversity resulting from their activities and had measures in place to address them.