Memorandum by the Confederation of British
Industry (BI0 34)
INTRODUCTION
1. The Confederation of British Industry
(CBI) represents 250,000 businesses embracing all sectors from
manufacturing, services, retail and utilities. Its membership
ranges from large multinational organisations with a number of
subsidiaries, to small and medium enterprises with fewer than
200 staff, many with an interest in biodiversity issues.
2. The CBI strongly supports the principle
of the maintenance and enhancement of biodiversity through the
actions of business.
3. British business considers biodiversity
to be an essential part of a healthy and high quality environment.
The three pillars of sustainable development: economy, environment
and social equity are central to the quality of life in the UK
and both influence, and are influenced by, a diverse and healthy
natural environment.
4. We live in an environment that has been
shaped by the activities of people over the ages and this has
changed almost every corner of the country in terms of the flora
and fauna it supports. Through the opportunity for change that
it often creates, business today has the ability to impact both
positively and negatively on the rich biodiversity of Britain.
Business, Government and civil society need to debate a consensus
view of the current positive biodiversity impact that contributes
to sustainable development.
5. Business and industry, both as owners
and occupiers of large areas of land and as generators of the
country's wealth, is well placed to make a significant contribution
to national biodiversity strategy. The key relationship between
industry and biodiversity centres on:
— The occupancy, use and development
of land and marine sites.
— The use of natural resources in industrial
processes.
— Industrial activities that lead to
emissions to air, land and water.
— The use of living organisms and genetic
resources in biotechnical applications.
6. Whilst business recognises that the national
environment is constantly changing, it also recognises that it
has a responsibility to manage its impacts so that, on balance,
the overall contribution to biodiversity is positive.
MANAGING FOR
BIODIVERSITY
7. Increasingly, companies are applying
for accreditation for formal environmental management systems
such as EMAS and ISO 14001. These systems are designed to integrate
environmental considerations into the mainstream business decision-making
process. This focus on management systems as a way of improving
performance is becoming an increasingly popular business tool.
Furthermore, the CBI has developed the Environment, Health and
Safety benchmarking tool, CONTOUR, which has enabled member companies
to improve their environmental performance through helping them
assess the strengths and weaknesses of current performance.
8. In a systematic approach to environmental
management, businesses will identify the full range of environmental
impacts that their processes may have. These may range from issues
directly related to land use, development and rehabilitation through
to the impacts of emissions and discharges and how these may have
potential impacts on flora and fauna. Importantly, careful consideration
will have to be given to how negative impacts can be minimised
and positive aspects enhanced.
9. At the most basic level, simple observance
of the relevant statutory controls that seek to protect and enhance
our natural environment, will go some way towards fulfilling industry's
responsibilities towards biodiversity. The CBI supports regulatory,
legislative and fiscal initiatives to improve the environment,
providing such environmental regulations and economic instruments
are correctly and fairly designed to improve the environment,
are consistent with the smooth operation of the single market
and do not impair the competitiveness of British industry.
10. Beyond simple compliance, industry is
becoming more proactive in the development of biodiversity as
part of core activity or as part of the wider contribution of
business to the community. By the nature of their activities,
some businesses will have more potential for direct involvement
in biodiversity projects than others. By carrying out best practice
and adopting good management techniques that go beyond the legal
minimum, these businesses can make very real, physical contributions
to the protection and enhancement of biodiversity.
11. On the other hand, businesses that do
not impact directly on flora and fauna are demonstrating their
commitment to biodiversity by providing financial support for
projects, species and habitats. British industry provides funds,
support in-kind and human resources by championing a variety of
our most vulnerable species including large blue and pearl bordered
fritillary butterflies, bitterns, skylarks, corncrakes, otters,
water voles, red squirrels and pool frogs. Even the medicinal
leach and the depressed river mussel have not been left out.
12. The CBI believes that the publication
in 1994 of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, and the detailed local
plans which have followed, has been a positive stimulus for the
whole community to pay greater attention to the issue of biodiversity.
Used in conjunction with existing measures within the land use
planning and environmental regulation regimes, they are becoming
powerful tools in the effort to improve our environment. However,
we do not consider that Biodiversity Action Plans should be given
statutory status or that they should be enshrined in a more legalistic
framework. The best examples of business involvement with biodiversity
are those where partnerships and voluntary action have been allowed
to develop. Biodiversity could be destroyed by bureaucracy as
well as by neglect.
13. Similarly, the identification of "champions"
for species and habitats is supported. Already many companies
have become involved although there clearly remains considerable
scope for further progress.
PARTNERSHIP
14. CBI members have developed a number
of working partnerships designed to help secure greater business
involvement in biodiversity issues. For example the minerals industry
is involved with organisations including the RSPB in developing
practical guidance for site restoration to assist nature conservation
objectives and has established a number of partnership agreements
with English Nature and the individual Wildlife Trusts.
15. The waste management industry have provided
a considerable level of funding to help local nature reserves
and other conservation resources through the use of Landfill Tax
credits to help biodiversity and the understanding of nature conservation
issues in the community.
TECHNOLOGY
16. There is also a need for ongoing research
and technology to underpin our activities and to help inform and
support balanced decision-making. It should be recognised that
the environment is the product of past and current activity and
that future activity, improved understanding and technology, can
lead to an enhanced environment and is not simply a threat to
the status quo.
ENHANCING BIODIVERSITY
17. The minerals industry has demonstrated
its willingness to work towards the achievements of the UK's biodiversity
targets through the restoration of mineral sites, in order to
help promote a real and lasting increase in both habitat and species
diversity.
18. This requires a positive approach on
behalf of all statutory and other organisations with a clear emphasis
on partnership.
19. The minerals industry has a proven and
established record in creating new and exciting habitats and working
with statutory and voluntary organisations to meet national and
local nature conservation objectives.
20. The CBI is committed to taking this
forward at both a national level and, through all its members,
at the local level with further work with nature conservation
organisations to progress both the techniques and tools available
and actively promote the dissemination of best practice.
21. Members actively support the preparation
of Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs), the development of working
partnerships and nature conservation fora and the consideration
of improved techniques in mitigation, compensation and new habitat
creation and look to working jointly with mineral planning authorities
and conservation agencies to achieve practical, effective and
lasting solutions that will benefit the environment of future
generations.
22. An example of this approach has been
the creation of the "Minerals and Nature Conservation Forum"
by the Quarry Products Association, the Silica and Moulding Sands
Association and English Nature and the signing by them of a Joint
Statement of Intent aimed at achieving environmentally sustainable
development in the minerals industry.
23. The contribution that raw materials
make to sustainable development in the UK has a number of aspects.
The contribution to our quality of life revolves around the direct
contribution that minerals make in terms of their use in buildings,
infrastructure and consumer products and the less tangible but
nevertheless important value to the economy that arises from indigenous
production and trade.
24. There is also the direct contribution
to the environment in the form of the creation of new uses for
old sites, positive landscape enhancement and in the achievement
of progress towards the UK's biodiversity targets through restoration.
English Nature estimates that there are 600 Sites of Special Scientific
Interest that have either been created by mineral working or are
managed by quarrying companies in the UK. In addition to these,
there are many hundreds of examples where the restoration of mineral
workings has provided valuable new habitat for endangered species.
25. The UK minerals industry is an example
of a British industry that has both recognised the impacts that
it can have on biodiversity and done something about ensuring
that those impacts are managed in order to protect and enhance
biodiversity.
26. The minerals industry is a key part
of the national economy, supplying a wide range of minerals to
the manufacturing, energy and construction industries.
EXAMPLES OF
BIODIVERSITY ACTION
The Cotswold Water Park
Set up in 1967 for its amenity and wildlife
value, the Cotswold Water Park comprises over 120 large lakes
created by the extraction of sand and gravel, over many years,
together with associated wetland and grassland habitats. The Park
is nationally important for aquatic plants and wintering wildfowl,
and regionally important for many other species. It includes several
areas that have been notified as SSSIs. The high wildlife conservation
value of the area is the result of a combination of factors including
its large size (over 1,000 hectares of water), high water quality,
sensitive planning controls on after-use, and high quality after-care
management.
Much of the Park's interest has developed without
specific planning for biodiversity. With careful planning, there
is potential to achieve much more. This was recognised by the
Cotswold Water Park joint committee, which, in 1996 established
a steering group to guide the production of a Biodiversity Action
Plan for the Park. The steering group has representation from
the mineral industry, local authorities, English Nature and other
wildlife organisations. A biodiversity audit of the Park's wildlife
was carried out to inform the preparation of the BAP, which includes
a set of species and habitat targets for nine priority BAP species
and eight priority habitats. Companies extracting sand and gravel
work with the Water Park Society's Biodiversity Officer to contribute
to delivering the BAP targets through appropriate restoration
and after-use.
Needingworth Quarry, Cambridgeshire
Unlike the Cotswold Water Park, extraction had
not even begun at Hanson Aggregates' Needingworth sand and gravel
quarry before it was realised that the site offered the potential
to make a major contribution to the fulfilment of the UK BAP.
When planning consent was granted for extraction, it had been
specified that the site would be restored to farmland. Working
in partnership with the RSPB, English Nature, the Environment
Agency, Cambridgeshire County and the Farming and Rural Conservation
Agency, the company has developed an alternative proposal that
will see the site restored to reedbed habitat, which will be managed
by the RSPB as a nature reserve. Over the next 30 years, this
will become a 700 hectare wetland including the largest freshwater
reedbed in the UK. Reedbeds are one of the country's most threatened
habitats and are home to the bittern, the UK's most endangered
species, as well as to a host of other wetland dependant wildlife.
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