Quarrying For Wildlife

The responsibility of business

By Howard Park, marketing officer of The Wildlife Trusts’ Biodiversity Benchmark

Moves by the Government to modify the planning system to speed up the growth in house building and associated infrastructure in every region of the UK will increase the pressure that native wildlife faces from climate change, commercial development, pollution and habitat loss.

So every piece of land, however small or large – from the smallest gardens to large-scale ‘Living Landscape’ projects – can help protect and restore the UK’s battered biodiversity. With businesses owning substantial tracts of land, they can play a vital role in helping to meet international, national, regional and local biodiversity targets. ‘Target 2010’, published by English Nature in 2006, analyses the condition of England’s SSSIs (Sites of Special Scientific Interest) which are owned and managed by business; this shows that just 81 companies own or manage 84,500ha of SSSI land (approximately 8% of the total SSSI land in England). The water sector, with 16 water companies owning or managing 40,000ha of SSSI land (approximately 4% of the total SSSI land in England), has the biggest direct influence on SSSIs.

Other business sectors with substantial SSSI landholdings include construction and building materials (including quarrying and extraction), electricity, leisure, entertainment and hotels, and transport – railway land can provide valuable wildlife corridors through areas where habitats may have been lost through agricultural or industrial development. Network Rail maintain some 21,000 miles of track and are one of the UK’s largest landowners responsible for 57,000ha, which include all or part of 317 SSSIs in England.

However, protected sites such as these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to land owned by businesses – so every organization that owns or uses land can play a part by managing their land with the environment in mind. And with increasing awareness of the need to develop more sustainable business operations, biodiversity is becoming an essential part of mainstream environmental management systems (EMS), such as ISO 14001 (the International Standard for environmental management) or EMAS (The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme).

First award to recognize continual biodiversity improvement

The Wildlife Trusts’ Biodiversity Benchmark allows organizations across the country to assess the quality of their land management, improve their contribution to the environment and demonstrate their commitment to biodiversity through performance and partnership. Similar to other standards for management systems, the Benchmark is composed of a set of detailed requirements which an organization must be able to demonstrate that they can meet. Set up to support the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) by aiming to increase the contribution that businesses can make to enhancing biodiversity, it is the first award to recognize continual biodiversity improvement.

It is a management process which allows any organization that owns or manages land to assess its impact on the natural world, improve its contribution to the environment and demonstrate its commitment to biodiversity.

The Biodiversity Benchmark is flexible and adaptable, so it can be applied to any organization with land, (not just commercial operations and industries) from local authorities, utilities, the NHS, developers and charities, to recreational/tourism facilities.

Organizations that are already familiar with management systems, such as ‘Investors in People’ and ISO standards, will find similarities with the management process of the Biodiversity Benchmark, which sets out detailed requirements for organizations to achieve. The Biodiversity Benchmark complements existing environmental management systems and is easy to integrate with them. However, its focus is single-minded – to manage land for the benefit of wildlife, people and the participating organizations themselves.

Biodiversity Benchmark awards are issued in three categories:

Single site – where a single certificate is issued for a designated site; for example, this could be an area of land around a head office.

Multiple sites – where all sites selected by the client organization are visited and evaluated, with individual certificates issued for each site that achieves the Biodiversity Benchmark standard. This could apply to a multiple retailer in the process of enhancing land around its stores but where not all sites are yet up to scratch.

Whole organization – this is for an organization with several sites that wishes to achieve the Biodiversity Benchmark ‘across the board’. Initially, a selection of the organization’s sites will be visited and assessed. During subsequent years surveillance visits will be made to the remainder of the organization’s sites.

The Biodiversity Benchmark assessment is a straightforward but thorough process:

• First, an organization decides which category of Biodiversity Benchmark is most suitable; it then completes an application form, which is referred to a local Wildlife Trust and a quotation is drawn up for carrying out the assessment.
• When the organization is ready to meet the Biodiversity Benchmark requirements, it completes a self-assessment form and an auditor is appointed to visit the site for an initial assessment of the biodiversity management system on the ground, and to identify any problems.
• This is followed up by the main assessment and, if needed, the organization responds to any major ‘issues’ identified (ie those which would prevent the auditor from recommending the award of a Biodiversity Benchmark certificate).
• Subject to any such issues being satisfactorily addressed, the auditor will make a recommendation which is then checked by The Wildlife Trusts’ appointed quality assurance auditor.

The importance of surveys

A recent review of the scheme has made the process very robust and any organization that aspires to the Benchmark must demonstrate senior-management commitment and must have a biodiversity policy in place; the organization should be working with conservation partners and show continual biodiversity improvement. Evidence is required of surveys and identification of the most important habitats and species, with objectives and targets drawn up from those surveys.

The organization must have staff with operational responsibility for biodiversity and there must be systems for monitoring and reporting biodiversity performance.

‘Meeting these requirements is really tough, especially when you consider that biodiversity is not the main aim of these organizations,’ said Howard Park, marketing officer for The Wildlife Trusts’ Biodiversity Benchmark. ‘But the feedback we are receiving is that organizations who go through the process find that it helps them to greatly improve their environmental management.

‘So far we have mainly been talking to the converted – regrettably, many companies still think that nature only exists beyond their perimeters, so there is a huge education job to be done by the whole of the conservation sector in the UK to make organizations realize the potential importance of their land for wildlife.’

It generally takes an organization at least a year from submitting an application to gaining the Biodiversity Benchmark, and since the more rigorous scheme was introduced around two years ago, five organizations with a dozen sites have achieved the Biodiversity Benchmark, but demand is now accelerating with seven organizations accounting for a further 20 sites now going through the process.

Quarrying leads the way

Aggregate and quarrying operations have been at the forefront of the organizations applying for the Benchmark; the first to achieve the award was the Marshalls site in Maltby, South Yorkshire, and this fully operational aggregate extraction and manufacturing plant was, in fact, the first manufacturing operation of any kind to attain the Biodiversity Benchmark.

[img_assist|nid=12695|title=Maltby works|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=268|height=200]The Maltby operation consists of an active magnesium limestone quarry and precast concrete products production plant. Within its boundaries it encompasses areas of ancient woodland and grassland, one of which is a post-glacial feature that is registered as a site of scientific interest.

While Marshalls had already considered their environmental impacts through registration to ISO 14001, the Biodiversity Benchmark offered them a tool to manage the ecological aspects of their business. Using the Benchmark has assisted Marshalls in not only improving the habitat within their control, but has also raised their employee’s flora and fauna awareness, thus improving the overall interest and awareness of the surrounding environment and biodiversity. The whole process has had a positive effect on employees, who have taken part in local biodiversity activities, such as BBC ‘Autumnwatch’ and ‘Springwatch’ events held at The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Potteric Carr Nature Reserve.

To achieve the Biodiversity Benchmark, Marshalls’ Maltby works produced a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) to ensure that the site would be properly managed to improve its wildlife value for the long term. With existing internal interest, its site employees have been actively involved throughout the process. This has now grown to include involvement with the local community, arranging site visits for schools and developing partnerships with Doncaster MBC, Rotherham Chamber of Trade and Doncaster Biodiversity Action Partnership.

Since starting its BAP, the Maltby works has created a new conservation area around its old pump lagoon with bespoke man-made island retreat, spread in excess of 200 tonnes of soil for new planting, placed reeds to form new wetland areas, sited a total of 150 new trees and sown areas with grass and wild flower seed. It is now also actively managing its hedgerows and remaining habitats to encourage new flora, fauna and wildlife. This action has already led to new breeding pairs of birds visiting the site to accompany the yearly return of a flock of sand martins, which takes up residence around the lagoon area.

The Biodiversity Benchmark, being an audited management system, has helped Marshalls to lift the site’s profile both within and outside the local community, and since obtaining the Benchmark the company has received external recognition for its involvement in improving biodiversity – as demonstrated by the Group receiving several high-profile awards, including a Green Apple Award and the Npower Award for environmental improvement.

Ian Manley, environmental improvements manager for Marshalls, said: ‘Thanks to support from the NGOs and the Wildlife Trust, Marshalls have been able to demonstrate that extractive and manufacturing industries can exist with wildlife and, by sensible management, can ensure that local wildlife develops and adds to biodiversity in the surrounding area.’

The Wildlife Trusts work with organizations that achieve the Biodiversity Benchmark to help them gain positive media coverage; for Marshalls this included Yorkshire Wildlife Trust president, the actor and broadcaster Brian Blessed, presenting their award at a gala dinner. The Maltby site has also achieved extensive editorial and national television coverage, including BBC2’s ‘Working Lunch’ and a five-minute slot on ‘Springwatch’ in June 2008.

The success of the Maltby pilot site has convinced Marshalls that obtaining the Biodiversity Benchmark delivers social progress both for their own employees and the wider local community. It also delivers environmental development and protection and can enhance the economic development of the site.

Ian Manley continued: ‘This combination of social, environmental and economic development forms the basis of the overall sustainable aspirations of Marshalls. We have, therefore, developed a roll-out plan to obtain the Benchmark at further sites over the coming years and work has already started at two other sites.’

Latest award of the Biodiversity Benchmark

Aggregate Industries are the latest organization to gain The Wildlife Trusts’ Biodiversity Benchmark – first for their site at Little Paxton in Cambridgeshire and, most recently, for their Bardon Hill Quarry in Leicestershire, where they have worked closely with local biodiversity partners, such as Natural England, to monitor and enhance the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on Bardon Hill.

Commenting on the award, Bill Bolsover, chief executive officer of Aggregate Industries, said: ‘Since applying to start the Benchmark process in early 2007, we have worked extremely hard with our partners, auditing a number of our processes and procedures in respect to protecting and enhancing biodiversity at Bardon Hill Quarry.

‘Clearly, we are delighted to have achieved this accreditation; however, we are committed to not just stopping here. Our aim now is to continue the good work already done and to build on this so that we can constantly improve the way we manage our landholdings in the future, both at this site and at our other quarries across the UK.

‘The most significant work at the quarry site to date has been to replace the conifers on Bardon’s SSSI with UK-provenanced broad-leafed species, such as oak, ash and holly. With so many rare species in the National Forest, and more specifically in the Charnwood area, we have an opportunity to provide some of the habitats to encourage these species to establish themselves at Bardon.’

Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, commented: ‘There is increasing awareness among the business community of the need to develop more sustainable business operations and I am delighted that Aggregate Industries are at the forefront of organizations who have achieved the Biodiversity Benchmark.

‘Bardon Hill is a wonderful site for wildlife but, in a man-made environment such as this, the richness of the flora and fauna does not happen by accident. Aggregate Industries, together with all their partners and volunteer supporters, have worked incredibly hard to achieve The Wildlife Trusts’ Biodiversity Benchmark.

‘Every organization that owns or uses land can help protect and restore our native wildlife by managing their land with the environment in mind, and I hope that this example will encourage many more organizations to meet the challenge of the Biodiversity Benchmark.’

[img_assist|nid=12696|title=Paxton Pits Nature Reserve|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=216|height=200]Earlier this year, Aggregate Industries gained their first Biodiversity Benchmark at Little Paxton, a sand and gravel extraction operation adjacent to Paxton Pits Nature Reserve, near St Neots, in Cambridgeshire, for their continuing commitment to creating and improving wildlife habitats at the quarry and the nature reserve.

Little Paxton Quarry has been managed with sensitivity to wildlife over the past decade and both the quarry and the nature reserve form an important wetland that attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year. Part of the site has been designated as a SSSI by Natural England, in recognition of its importance for wintering water birds, many of which visit from Russia and the high Arctic – last year 160 different bird species were recorded.

Like other sites which have achieved the Biodiversity Benchmark, Little Paxton Quarry works to an exacting BAP to ensure proper site management, allowing wildlife value to be improved for the long term. Quarry staff work closely with local birdwatchers and a team of volunteers from the ‘Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve’, the RSPB and St Neots Bird and Wildlife Club, to monitor activities across the area each year.

Darren Griffiths, quarry manager at Little Paxton, said: ‘As a result of going through the Biodiversity Benchmark, even for a site of such national recognition as Little Paxton, we were able to identify areas where further enhancement and protection of biodiversity could be implemented. We are now able to clearly demonstrate areas of the site which are subject to legislation and require external monitoring.

‘While attaining the Biodiversity Benchmark was hard work and time-consuming, we feel the long-term payback of enhancement across Little Paxton Quarry, and the development of our relationship with our external partners, more than exceeds the initial investment of time.’

Since starting its Biodiversity Action Plan, recent work has involved the management of shorelines, creation of an island for ground-nesting birds, re-profiling of an existing island to allow future management by control of water levels, and maintaining viewpoints on the Ouse Valley Way long-distance footpath. Volunteers from the ‘Friends’ also used their long experience of habitat management on the adjacent reserve to support the company’s plan to extend Paxton Pits Nature Reserve as part of a recent application to extract the remaining minerals at the site.

Aggregate Industries and Marshalls have now been joined by Tarmac, who have several sites in north-east England which are being audited for the Biodiversity Benchmark.

‘With ever-increasing pressures from regulators, the media, consumers and shareholders pushing organizations to address the environmental risks of their operations, the Biodiversity Benchmark is becoming the validation for best practice in biodiversity,’ said Howard Park. ‘It has been encouraging to see the aggregates industry leading the way and setting the example for other sectors to follow. As you would expect from the UK’s leading conservation organization, it is independent, rigorous and tough to achieve – and all the better for biodiversity.’

Organizations wishing to find out more about the Biodiversity Benchmark requirements, assessment process and implications should email: [email protected]