Home > Implementing the UK BAP > Why

Why bother?
- the relevance and benefits to minerals industries of working to BAPs

Rather than being a mere buzz-word, biodiversity is now a major concern for legislative bodies, commercial organisations, and individuals alike. The British Government has made a significant commitment to its promotion both at home and abroad – and minerals industries have a significant part to play in its practical application. They can also reap benefits, both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’.

First: action on biodiversity provides an opportunity to achieve environmental improvements which would otherwise not have happened. By achieving results which assist wider targets, that contribution to nature conservation will be recognised more readily in public than might have been the case in the past.

Second: minerals industries can satisfy all the factors identified by the UK Biodiversity Secretariat (in Guidance Note 2, Developing Partnerships) as those to consider when identifying potential partners in biodiversity action plans, and so can:

• influence land management;
• have an impact on nature conservation;
• influence policies affecting nature conservation;
• win leverage (ie, the ability to influence and enlist);
• potentially make an increased contribution to nature conservation through the partnership;
• act as a source of information to inform nature conservation decisions.

Third: positive PR and a better chance of winning planning applications. The future of the minerals industries appears to be bound up increasingly with high standards of environmental performance across a range of topics all at once. High standards in matters such as restoration, protection of the environment from visual damage, and the implementation of environmental management systems are good – indeed necessary – but may not be sufficient. Additional contributions on matters such as promoting biodiversity are increasingly expected as part of ‘responsible industrial citizenship’.

Such responsibility cannot be stressed highly enough. Practically, objectives related to biodiversity are finding their way increasingly into statutory development plans and are increasingly material to planning applications.

Industries which show they have considered their contribution to biodiversity and can thus demonstrate compliance to planning policy will be at an advantage. Concepts such as company biodiversity plans, seen as part of wider environmental management systems, might be the way forward.