Go wild for life: World Environment Day 2016

From the harsh deserts of southern Africa to Finland’s frozen wilderness, our mining and exploration activities span the most diverse and challenging ecosystems across the globe.

That’s why it’s our aim to effectively manage our environmental risks by minimising our impact and create opportunities that deliver long term benefits to our stakeholders – without any significant effect on biodiversity.

In honour of this year’s World Environment Day on 5 June – and its theme ‘Go Wild for Life’ – we highlight some of our partnerships and projects aimed at the protection of our planet and its wild species.

Protecting biodiversity

Exciting discovery for owl project

Proof of what can be achieved through a well-executed rehabilitation programme was demonstrated recently when Middelburg Bird Club visited our Kriel Colliery in South Africa.

The team discovered a nest containing five eggs on site, which represents an exciting new development in the Anglo American-Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) African Grass-Owl project.

The African Grass-Owl faces a number of threats and it is estimated that there are now less than 5,000 left in southern Africa.

The project, supported by our Kriel and Zibulo mines, seeks to address concerns over habitat decline and a lack of knowledge on managing Highveld grasslands for this secretive species.

This is one among only a handful of new nests to have been found since the inception of the project so is a genuinely rare, and exciting, discovery for the future of this species.

Understanding ecology to ensure rare plant's survival

In Namibia, during diamond exploration, our team unearthed something quite unexpected – the Juttadinteria albata, an increasingly rare plant, accorded the conservation status of ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The flower is found near the Sendelingsdrif Mine in Namibia’s Succulent Karoo region, one of the world’s only desert biodiversity hotspots, known for its spectacular landscape, its geology, and the unique plant and animal life it supports.

Given the plant’s rarity, activities there need to be managed appropriately.

Success in restoring this species will largely depend on how well its habitat needs are understood.

Through our Namdeb joint venture between De Beers and the Government of the Republic of Namibia, we saw that an understanding of the biology and ecology of the plant was needed.

We worked in partnership with the Gobabeb Research and Training Centre in Namibia, the University of Namibia, and the Millennium Seed Bank project at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in the UK to establish how best to restore the plant's habitat after mining activities end.

Partnering for success

International standards with the ICMM

We are a founding member of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), and that means we are committed to implementing and measuring our performance against a set of ten sustainable development principles and the position statements that underpin them. One of them is a commitment to seek improvement of our environmental performance and, specifically, not to mine or explore in World Heritage properties.

Through this commitment we can ensure that we are working with the global community to protect the unique and precious areas of habitat for wildlife around the world.

Brazilian rainforest conservation

We are a partner in the Amazon Protected Areas Programme (ARPA), the largest initiative for conservation and sustainable use of tropical forests in the world. Launched in 2002, this Federal Government programme, coordinated by the Brazilian Ministry of Environment and managed financially by Funbio, aims to protect 60 million hectares of the Brazilian Amazon by 2039, an area equivalent to that of France.

This initiative is vital to ensuring the ongoing conservation of Amazonian biodiversity, and reaffirms our commitment to Brazil, a country where we have operated for more than 40 years. Protected areas act as barriers to illegal deforestation, help minimise the imbalance of rainfall to ensure an extensive vegetation cover, and reflect a long-term planning approach for the largest rainforest in the world.

Protecting native species in Chile

Working in conjunction with the Ministry of Environment and the Council of National Parks, we have joined representatives of eight nature sanctuaries to sign a partnership agreement for the management and operation of protected areas near Santiago in Chile.

The agreement has a range of aims, including promoting conservation and biodiversity; coordinating activities between nine nature sanctuaries; and promoting ecological integrity.

As owners of the upper area of the Los Nogales nature sanctuary, we are proud to sign this agreement. Partnerships like these are integral to ongoing conservation efforts, and reaffirm our commitment to protecting the biodiversity surrounding operations in Chile.

Let us know your views on World Environment Day and our environmental projects in the comments below.