BirdLife International and HeidelbergCement launch biodiversity partnership in Europe

On Tuesday 4 October, BirdLife International, a world leader in nature conservation, and HeidelbergCement, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of building materials, launched a biodiversity partnership. The primary goal of this partnership, for which the global Memorandum of Understanding was signed on September 16th, is to further improve the protection of biodiversity at quarry sites in Europe, through collaboration with BirdLife at international, national and local level.

The co-operation is initially scheduled to last three years. In the first year, a biodiversity strategy for Europe will be developed jointly. The strategy will also include goals for the protection of species and habitats. In the second year, joint biodiversity projects will be formulated in different countries. Local management, in particular, will be involved, alongside the national partners of BirdLife International. From the third year, the first pilot projects in Europe will be implemented and documented.

BirdLife Europe hopes that this collaboration will inspire other companies with an impact on the environment to first minimize it and then proactively restore biodiversity. We aim to demonstrate the many benefits of working together at global and local levels to increase sustainability in the use of natural resources.

“At BirdLife, we are really encouraged to see that a global leader like HeidelbergCement is taking the concept of sustainability to the next level by aiming to give back to nature more than was received, creating a real win-win situation for biodiversity”, said Angelo Caserta, Regional Director of BirdLife Europe. “By bringing into this partnership our scientific approach and local to global conservation expertise, BirdLife  will assist HeidelbergCement in strengthening its position as a company truly concerned about reducing its impact on the environment.“

“After more than 15 years of experience in biodiversity management, we now welcome BirdLife as an excellent partner to enlarge the scientific knowledge about biodiversity in mining sites and to amplify our current biodiversity policy”, said Daniel Gauthier, member of the Managing Board of HeidelbergCement and leading the Environmental Sustainability strategy for the Group. “Together we will start by analysing and optimising our existing work. We will then develop species protection programmes for endangered species living in our European quarries. We will also analyse the potential to use our quarries as a network for nature protection and migration corridors.”