Displaying items by tag: Conservation

India: UltraTech Cement has conserved 105m³ of water in the 2024 financial year, achieving a status of five times water positive. The company's water management strategy includes the installation of rainwater harvesting systems and zero liquid discharge plants at several manufacturing units to enable 100% reuse of treated water.

Malaysia: A court has granted Associated Pan Malaysia Cement (APMC) the right to evict Buddhist monks from the Gunung Kanthan caves monastery in Hulu Kinta, Perak. The land is part of a site where APMC has leased 146 hectares of land for limestone extraction. New Straits Times News has reported that the producer operates quarries in Zones A and B of the site, but has yet to commence extraction from Zones C and D. Local authorities had previously given assurance that mining operations ‘would not disturb’ the monastery.

Monks from the Thudong tradition established the Gunung Kanthan caves monastery across two caves in Gunung Kanthan hill in the early 20th century. Today, it contains numerous artefacts and works of art.

Panama: Panamanian cement producers reused cooling water used in cement grinding at a rate of 88 – 100% nationally in 2020. The development is part of a concerted water conservation effort first launched by Argos Panamá. The La Estrella newspaper has reported that Cementos Panamá’s Quebrancha grinding plant reduced its water consumption by 88% in five years, to 59,600m3 from 477,000m3 in 2015. The plant’s cement now has a water consumption of 100l/t, compared to 537l/t in 2015.

UK: Tarmac has renewed its partnership with the Peak District National Park until 2026. Under the partnership, the company organises volunteering and funds an engagement conservation job role at the national park in Derbyshire. Since 2016, volunteers from Tarmac’s Tunstead quarry have built dry stone walls, restored a footbridge and helped to manage ancient hay meadows. In several areas of the park, volunteers have also replaced benches.

Tunstead quarry stone and powders director Pete Butterworth said that he was ‘delighted’ about the renewal. He added, “By sponsoring the engagement role, we also enable many people to get involved in practical projects which make a significant contribution to the maintenance and improvement of this beautiful area.”

UK: Tarmac, part of Ireland-based CRH, has relocated reptiles to purpose-built bespoke habitats at its Bellhouse, Essex, quarry. The reptiles lived in an area of planned quarry expansion. Work began in 2016 on the new habitat for grass snakes, common lizards and slow worms, consisting of acid grassland, tussocks and ponds. The company plans to expand the reserve under its site restoration process. It says that this will enable reptile populations to grow.

Restoration manager Enrique Moran Montero said, “The restoration phase of a quarry provides so many opportunities to promote local fauna and flora, and we pride ourselves in making the most of this land. From nature reserves to parks and wildlife learning zones for schools to use, we always strive to provide benefits for local wildlife as well as the communities we work in.”

Mexico: Cemex has partnered with reintroduction specialist Ovis to release bighorn sheep at a site in Sierra El Viejo, Sonora state. The UMA El Plomito ranch supplied nine sheep. Four more sheep were born in the open pre-release pen which the sheep currently inhabit. The partners will support the animals with supplementary food and water while they adapt to their new environment.

Head of sustainability Vicente Saiso said, "The reintroduction of the bighorn sheep in Sonora represents one more example of our commitment to the conservation of biodiversity. It is a successful example of joint work between companies and conservation organisations to create a better future for our planet."

UK: HeidelbergCement subsidiary Hanson has announced a planned 80ha expansion of its Ouse Fen nature reserve partnership project with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in Cambridgeshire. The company says the additional restored land from its Needingworth quarry will increase the area of the reserve to 298ha.

Unit manager Hilton Law said, “The Ouse Fen reserve is an outstanding example of minerals extraction leading to habitat creation on a landscape scale and highlights the benefits that managing the land left behind from quarrying can make in shaping and improving habitats for wildlife. We are proud to support the RSPB, Cambridgeshire County Council and others involved in the project, which will make an invaluable contribution to achieving UK biodiversity targets and securing the future of important wildlife habitats and species.”

The reserve is a home to marsh harriers, bitterns and bearded tits, in addition to otters and water voles.

India: A public hearing over Birla Corporation subsidiary Reliance Cement’s planned 3.9Mt/yr Mukutban cement plant in Yavatmal district, Maharashtra has raised objections against the company’s quarry plans. The Times of India newspaper has reported that the plant is due to source its limestone from a 7.6km² quarry in Korpana, Chandrapur district. Critics say that the company has failed to complete a wildlife management plan, and that the site of the mine lies on a 120km wildlife corridor between the Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary and the Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary in neighbouring Telangana. Reliance Cement said that an environmental report had shown the presence of no scheduled species within 10km of the proposed site.

Maharashtra state wildlife board member and honorary wildlife warden Bandu Dhore said, “Although there is no forest area under the proposed mining site, it acts as a regular corridor as there is forest on either side within 1km. We are pursuing the matter with the forest department and would press it with higher officials to ensure that the precious corridor remains undisturbed. Protection of corridors is a must for conservation of wildlife and hence we are going to raise the demand of re-survey of the project site from the wildlife point of view.”

Sri Lanka: Tokyo Cement has supported its partner the Sri Lanka Navy in completing an underwater statue park. The Sunday Observer newspaper has reported that the 1200m² park in Trincomalee Bay, Eastern Province, lies at a depth of 18m and unfolds a historical storyline. Tokyo Cement supplied its Tokyo Super blended hydraulic fly ash cement to the project.

Project leader Piyal De Silva said, “Our Coral Conservation Programme (CCP) partner Tokyo Cement will carry out monitoring and maintenance activities and will provide material and technical support to set up a coral nursery for replanting corals within the Underwater Marine Sanctuary (UMS). The marine park will gradually become the home to coral colonies native to the Trincomalee Bay area. With the corals, it will attract young fish, which will ultimately lead to the formation of fish communities.” Tokyo Cement has been involved in coral reef restoration around Sri Lanka since 2010.

Mexico: Cemex has worked with AES Mexico, the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature (FMCN), the Mexican Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) through the General Wildlife Direction, and the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) to successfully reintroduce 19 American bison specimens (Bison bison) in El Carmen Nature Reserve, in Coahuila, to establish the second conservation herd of this species in Mexico.

“For almost two decades, we have carried out different alliances with companies and conservation organisations to protect and increase biodiversity in El Carmen. Examples of this include the reintroduction of the American bison, the bighorn sheep, and the pronghorn, as well as the increase in the populations of desert mule deer, white-tailed deer, and black bear,” said Vicente Saisó, director of sustainability at Cemex.

El Carmen Nature Reserve is a private cross-border conservation area in Mexico and the US that contains five different ecosystems and habitats to diverse species of plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians over more than 140,000 hectares.

The American bison is the largest land mammal in North America and was present in the plains of Canada, the US and Mexico. In Mexico, American bison lived in the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Durango; however, it the species was depleted in the second half of the 19th century. Currently, it is a species that is in danger of extinction in Mexico.

Prior to this collaboration, the only herd of bison considered genetically pure was at Rancho El Uno, owned by FMCN, located within the Janos Biosphere Reserve, Chihuahua. 19 specimens from this herd were moved to El Carmen, located in Maderas del Carmen Flora and Fauna Protection Area by a team of wildlife management specialists. The plan to reintroduce the American bison in El Carmen Nature Reserve was launched in April of 2019, and it will continue until 2021 with the translocation of additional specimens.