This website recognises and demonstrates the significant part that minerals industries have to play in implementing the UK Biodiversity Action Plan – particularly in view of the fact that mineral companies have substantial landholdings which sustain habitats and species of nature conservation value, and the ability to create new habitats. The industries have the capability to be significant partners in Action Plans for priority habitats and species, and in Local Biodiversity Action Plans (Local BAPs). A series of case examples reveals that many companies are already involved in a variety of actions.

The UK Biodiversity Action Plan, and the structures set up to implement it, represents a substantial Government commitment. Contributing to biodiversity is increasingly a measure of good industrial citizenship, as well as being material to minerals industries’ interests through legislation and planning policy. This is more of an opportunity than a risk. The emphasis on partnership and communication, strategically and locally, will help industries to demonstrate the potential benefits that can be associated with mineral working. Potentially, contributions from the industries can fit comfortably into the wider environmental context of sustainable development, Natural Areas, and other initiatives for nature conservation.

The main focus of the UK BAP is on protecting and enhancing the chances of scarce and threatened habitats and species. The minerals industries can contribute to the Action Plans for priority cases, and to the Local BAPs which take these forward at a local level. Compared with previous efforts to assist nature conservation, the UK BAP brings a more focused approach with targets and priorities. Mineral companies may well be able to adjust their actions to match new priorities. Some of the opportunities are procedural – through partnerships, engagement in the planning system, and through environmental management systems, for example – but there are equally many practical steps that can be taken on land under the control of mineral companies.

Companies should programme the carrying out of an audit of all their land, incorporating a baseline study and a review of the management of all land for biodiversity purposes. This should be followed by planned implementation of improved methods of land management, together with arrangements for monitoring and review. It should cover land that will never be worked, land yet to be worked, land in excavation, and restored land. There is considerable scope to fit practical measures to the wider interests of the locality.

This website offers a series of avenues worth exploring, and provides practical information about the kinds of habitats and species that minerals industries are most likely to be able to assist in different circumstances. It also advises whom to contact for further information, with whom to work in partnership, and what actions minerals companies and industries might take.