| Collaboration with the World Conservation Union (IUCN) |
Holcim is committed to ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. Our aim is not only to improve our own operational approach to resource management, but to contribute to broader goals in the communities where we live and work. Addressing conservation and biodiversity issues can also contribute to sustainable livelihoods for local people. |
||
|
As a result, Holcim’s global agreement with IUCN, signed in early 2007, has two objectives:
Spin-offs from the work with IUCN include involvement in the WBCSD’s biodiversity focus area and the aim of influencing our peers. |
||
|
Our first year of collaboration In the partnership’s first year, Holcim and IUCN have created a coordinating structure for collaborative activities, agreed a workplan and established an Independent Expert Panel, chaired by Dr. Christopher Imboden. The panel comprises world-respected experts in the fields of biodiversity and anthropology, and we anticipate that they will provide recommendations on improving the Holcim environmental policy landscape and assist in establishing key elements for a biodiversity strategy. A baseline of Group practices in biodiversity conservation management has also been completed from an inventory of more than 300 cement and aggregate quarries. In addition, Holcim sponsors IUCN’s Red List, a global register of threatened and endangered species. The 2008 World Conservation Congress in Barcelona will provide a platform to share the first results of those activities. |
||
|
Facilitating Group companies’ involvement Holcim Group companies are collaborating with IUCN on a variety of local initiatives within the context of the global agreement. In Sri Lanka, IUCN and Holcim are working on projects to review the quality of biodiversity conservation activities at Holcim sites and to facilitate existing quarry rehabilitation planning and implementation. Holcim Lanka brings technical expertise to contribute to the rehabilitation efforts of coral ecosystems. The use of sustainably produced biomass as an alternative fuel is also being explored, to open up an additional source of income for the communities around Holcim sites. In Costa Rica, Holcim and IUCN hosted a regional workshop in November 2007 on urban planning and environmental management with the municipal governments of Central American capital cities. The partnership also plans to develop construction sector guidelines for adapting to climate change and pollution abatement, land use planning and disaster risk management. A separate project to protect the jaguar in Costa Rica is also under development. Holcim and IUCN have drafted a joint agreement to establish guidelines for improving biodiversity conservation and ecosystem equilibrium at operational sites in Ecuador. Micro-enterprise development initiatives will also feature in Ecuador, as well as in Bangladesh and Vietnam, where pilots will be conducted in 2008. The aim is to develop and implement – in close collaboration with local stakeholders – a concept for the development of livelihood activities such as eco-tourism, which create sustainable livelihoods and at the same time conserve biodiversity. |
||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Find high-resolution images of the signing ceremony
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Read the media release about the three-year cooperation agreement
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
