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Home > Context > Sustainability
Sustainable development
Sustainable development principles apply to the minerals industries and to many other resources on which mineral working bears – such as energy use, water use, trees, and landscapes. In the case of aggregate minerals, the sustainable supply of some of these affected assets can be just as important as the sustainable supply of the mineral resource itself.
The Government has set out the objectives for sustainable development to be applied to minerals planning in the following terms (MPG 1, 1996, General Considerations and the Development Plan System, paragraph 35):
| i. |
to conserve minerals as far as possible, whilst ensuring an adequate supply to meet needs; |
| ii. |
to ensure that the environmental impacts caused by mineral operations and the transport of minerals are kept, as far as possible, to an acceptable minimum; |
| iii. |
to minimise production of waste and to encourage efficient use of materials, including appropriate use of high quality materials, and recycling of waste; |
| iv. |
to encourage sensitive working, restoration and aftercare practices so as to preserve or enhance the overall quality of the environment; |
| v. |
to protect areas of designated landscape or nature conservation value from development, other than in exceptional circumstances and where it has been demonstrated that development is in the public interest; |
| vi. |
to prevent the unnecessary sterilisation of mineral resources. |
Clearly, sustainability impacts on the future of the minerals industries. Action will be required on many fronts, but the contribution which mineral working can make to implementing the UK Biodiversity Action Plan has a distinct place in this wider scheme:
- The Biodiversity Convention is one of the four key outputs from the Earth Summit, to which the minerals industries can contribute.
- Promoting biodiversity is fully consistent with the Government’s sustainability objectives for minerals – (ii) on minimising environmental impacts, (v) on protecting designated nature conservation areas, and especially (vi) “to encourage sensitive working, restoration and aftercare practices so as to preserve or enhance the overall quality of the environment”.
- By positively enhancing wildlife, the capacity of the environment to absorb mineral working in this respect can be increased.
Click here for practical guidelines and advice on implementing the UK BAP.
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