The Minerals And Nature Conservation Forum — Progress, Challenges And Change

The progress achieved so far and the challenges and changes that lie ahead for this industry partnership

The minerals industry has a long association with nature conservation and as a major land steward has an important role to play in conserving biodiversity and geodiversity in the future. Approximately 700 nationally important Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and many more locally important nature conservation sites are associated with quarrying and large areas of important habitat have been created through quarry restoration. While quarrying can have an effect on nature conservation, for instance through habitat loss, the responsible management of operational and non-operational areas has helped create large areas of important habitat and many important geological features. During the last 10 years the Minerals and Nature Conservation Forum, a partnership between the minerals industry and English Nature, the government agency responsible for championing nature conservation, has played a pivotal role in bringing industry and the conservationist together to develop, share and disseminate good practice.

The Minerals and Nature Conservation Forum

Initiated in 1995 as a partnership between the Quarry Products Association (QPA), the Silica and Moulding Sands Association (SAMSA) and English Nature, the original aim of the Minerals and Nature Conservation Forum (referred to hereafter as ‘the Forum’) was to open dialogue and build trust. Membership from industry was initially a reflection of interested individuals rather than an attempt to represent a range of mineral companies. An initial period building understanding and confidence led, in 1998, to a more formal relationship being established. This came about on 10 July 1998 with the signing of a Statement of Intent (S of I) between English Nature, the QPA and SAMSA.

The S of I identified four joint objectives:

1. Communicating (aimed at developing contacts at all levels).
2. Learning (sharing principles and developing ideas).
3. Managing (managing the resource and sites more effectively for nature conservation).
4. Involving (making contact with, involving and influencing others).

Between 1998 and 2004 the Forum, chaired by Dr Tom Moat of English Nature, and with representation from the QPA, SAMSA and several mineral companies, set out to facilitate, catalyse and support increased nature conservation awareness and activity within the minerals industry. Provided with a modest budget from all three signatories, the outputs from the Forum during this period included:

• Use of invited speakers to generate discussion and shared understanding of issues such as sustainable development, biodiversity action planning, health and safety constraints on access to quarries, and the workings of the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) grants schemes.
• Dialogue on generic and site-specific issues regarding impacts on, and opportunities for, nature conservation.
• Production and dissemination of research reports on topics such as guidelines for identifying biodiversity action plan (BAP) habitats in quarries, assessing the potential contribution of the minerals extraction industry to the UK BAP, and measuring the mineral industry’s contribution to biodiversity.
• Production and wide dissemination of good practice guides on ‘biodiversity and minerals’ and ‘geodiversity and the minerals industry’.
• Organization of joint training events and seminars for planners, conservation groups and quarry managers on issues such as enhancing biodiversity and geodiversity through quarry management and restoration.
• Web-based information on good practice.
• Spin-off agreements and actions between individual mineral companies and English Nature.

During the last 10 years, the Forum approach has established an innovative and effective way of working that has been recognized as good practice in English Nature and has subsequently been applied to other areas of partnership working. The work of the Forum in English Nature is reflected in statements such as ‘English Nature will: create and strengthen national and local partnerships with the mineral industry, to improve delivery of nature conservation benefits’, which appears in English Nature’s Non-Aggregate Position Statement, 2004.

A new challenge

On 27 June 2005, the QPA, SAMSA and English Nature updated and renewed their commitment to working together to enhance biodiversity and geodiversity by signing three new Memoranda of Understanding (MoU). These MoU replaced the 1998 S of I and included more challenging and specific objectives and, through inclusion of the British Marine Aggregate Producers’ Association (BMAPA), expanded co-operation into the marine environment.

Key statements from these MoU include the following:

‘The industry will endeavour, where appropriate, to:

1. Conserve, enhance and promote biodiversity and geodiversity.
2. Manage areas under its stewardship to support nature conservation.’

‘English Nature will:

1. Provide expert advice to operators, companies and the QPA.
2. Communicate the work of the Minerals and Nature Conservation Forum and disseminate best practice to staff.’

The MoU also states that ‘English Nature, QPA and SAMSA will work together as the Minerals and Nature Conservation Forum to promote the role of the minerals industry in encouraging positive nature conservation management at all mineral extraction sites; for terrestrial activities adding that this will be achieved through:

1. Working together to identify, develop and disseminate good practice.
2. Working towards achieving the Government target of 95% of all SSSIs to be in favourable condition by 2010.
3. Encouraging companies to produce biodiversity and geodiversity action plans within five years.
4. Supporting the Forum, including realistic resources.

How can companies contribute to meeting the objectives of the Forum?

Most mineral companies are already involved in initiatives or activities that contribute to nature conservation in one way or another but there is always more that can be done. The Forum plans to push forward on the commitments made in the 2005 MoU and mineral companies can contribute to this work in the following ways:

• By managing, in collaboration with English Nature, SSSIs under their control in a way that will achieve favourable conservation condition. Data on SSSI condition for a company’s holdings is freely available from English Nature.
• By ensuring that any information, data-gathering or audit on SSSIs is collected in a way that is compatible with the way in which English Nature monitors and reports on SSSI condition.
• By ensuring that appropriate staff are familiar with methodologies for biodiversity and geodiversity action planning for mineral company holdings. Training seminars, such as the wetlands seminar held in Doncaster in September 2005 and the Geodiversity Action Planning seminar held at BGS Nottingham in November 2005, provide an easy way into this process.
• By producing a company biodiversity or geodiversity action plan by 2010, involving local interest groups wherever possible.
• By providing feedback through the Forum on issues such as how the ALSF grants scheme is working and how it could be improved.
• By being aware of the new Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 9: Biodiversity and Geological Conservation, and attempting to contribute to its policy objectives and principles. This PPS makes a number of important policy statements in areas where the minerals industry can make a major contribution. For example, it includes an objective of ensuring that biological and geological diversity are conserved and enhanced as an integral part of social, environmental and economic development, and a policy principle that plan policies should promote opportunities for the incorporation of beneficial biodiversity and geological features within the design of development.
• By visiting the Minerals and Nature Conservation Forum’s new web site, www.mineralsandnature.org.uk, planned for launch in early 2006.
• By contacting the Forum (through Natalie Bennett at English Nature on tel: (01733) 455207 or Elizabeth Clements at the QPA on tel: (020) 7963 8000) with examples of good practice or to raise any relevant issues.

Natural England — a new partner for the minerals industry

In July 2004, as part of its rural strategy, the Government set out its intention to create a new integrated agency in England comprising English Nature, the landscape, access and recreation elements of the Countryside Agency, and the agri-environment functions of the Rural Development Service (RDS). In February 2005 a draft bill, the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill, was published. In March 2005 Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, announced that this new agency would be called Natural England. She went on to say that Natural England will, for the first time, unite in a single organization, responsibility for enhancing biodiversity and landscape in rural, urban, coastal and marine areas, and for promoting access, recreation and public well-being.

Since early in 2005 English Nature has been working closely with the Countryside Agency and RDS in anticipation of the creation of Natural England, which is planned for 1 October 2006.

The creation of Natural England will undoubtedly have implications for the minerals industry and its relationship with government agencies responsible for the natural environment. First, from October 2006 English Nature, the Countryside Agency and the RDS, along with existing agreements and partnerships, will cease to exist and will need to be re-established. Second, Natural England will have a ‘whole environment’ remit including geology, geomorphology, soil, wildlife, landscape, access, recreation, public well-being and education, providing the industry with one partner with a wide remit instead of a number of partners with narrower remits, which is the current situation.

In recognition of these changes, the 2005 MoU signed by the QPA, SAMSA, BMAPA and English Nature commits all partners to exploring, over the next year, the relationship between mineral extraction and the work of Natural England.

Hopefully the opportunities and challenges that arise from the creation of Natural England will lead to an even stronger and more effective relationship being built around the minerals industry and conservation; one in which the Forum will have an important role to play. In developing the role and remit of the Forum, a number of issues will need to be considered:

1. The whole nature conservation remit of English Nature that has helped define the work of the Forum will be transferred to Natural England and therefore should the Forum remain as it is currently?
2. Natural England will be a much larger, ‘whole environment’ organization with a wider range of issues to consider with regard to the minerals industry. Assuming that there is to be a forum-based relationship, should there be one broadly based forum or a number of fora addressing different issues?
3. Will having one agency taking account of landscape issues alongside biodiversity and geodiversity change the relationship between the minerals industry and conservationists and if so how?
4. How might taking account of access, recreation, public well-being and education be reflected in the future relationship between the minerals industry and Natural England?

Although the nature of the relationship between the minerals industry and Natural England remains to be decided, the Minerals and Nature Conservation Forum provides a strong and successful platform on which to build a new relationship in which the minerals industry can continue to make a significant contribution to the conservation and management of the natural environment.

This article is based on an address given by Dr Colin Prosser, head of Geology and member of the Minerals and Nature Conservation Forum of English Nature, to the 2005 conference of the Silica and Moulding Sands Association (SAMSA).