Creating Value with the Future in Mind - Anglo American South Africa

managing our impact on the environment Land Stewardship and Biodiversity
land stewardship
and biodiversity
the Issue
We own large areas
of land throughout
the world, with
some operations
in environmentally
sensitive areas.
Ensuring responsible
land stewardship
through all the life cycle
stages of an operation
can influence our future
access to land and
capital, our legal and
social licence to
operate, and reduce
operational risks and
mine closure liabilities.
Land under
Anglo American’s
management control
511,632 ha
Disturbed land
rehabilitated, to date
17,903 ha
Our strategy and
management approach
Our approach to land stewardship
is governed by various mandatory
Anglo American Environment Way
performance requirements related
to rehabilitation and the management
of water, biodiversity, mineral waste
and hazardous substances, which
apply throughout the mining life
cycle. These environmental standards
are underpinned by rigorous predevelopment
social and environmental
impact assessments to ensure that
we proactively consider social and
environmental matters in our
planning. Our mine-closure
performance requirements and
toolbox offer specific guidance
on mine closure planning.
Two core components of land
management we focus on are
rehabilitation (a key regulatory
and financial risk for us), and the
conservation of biodiversity (the
variety of plant and animal life on
earth which provides a range of
vital benefits, collectively known
as ecosystem services). To help us
maximise the value of land holdings
and minimise impacts, we are
developing new land management
and biodiversity strategies that take
an ecosystem-services-based
approach to risk management.
Operational excellence
Our Environment Way rehabilitation
performance standard follows the
mitigation hierarchy approach of
‘avoid, minimise and mitigate’ impacts,
and advocates early and thorough
rehabilitation planning.
The earlier we commence
rehabilitation, the better the result.
Rehabilitation that takes place while
the mine is operational reduces
operational environmental risks
(such as soil erosion and water
pollution), improves the outcomes
of our rehabilitation efforts and is less
costly in the long run. Rehabilitation
outcomes are developed with
stakeholders during the environmental
impact assessment (EIA) process,
and commitments are made to return
land to a specified land capability
A cornerstone
of our work on
biodiversity is
partnerships
and engagement
with local
communities,
NGOs and
academic
institutions.
potential and post-mining use. While
stakeholders may agree an alternative
land use during the course of the life
of a mine, it is imperative that such
decisions do not alter the rehabilitation
commitments in respect of land
capability, in order to keep the
post-mining land-use opportunities
as broad as possible.
Given the potential of mining activities
to disturb habitats through land
disturbance, land-use change
and pollution, basic biodiversity
management is a requirement
within all our operational ISO 14001
management systems. Where our
EIAs identify significant biodiversity
risks or opportunities, operations
develop stand-alone biodiversity
action plans (BAPs), which seek to
balance ecological considerations
and community needs.
We have proactively sought to gain
an even better understanding of our
biodiversity risks and opportunities
so that these are managed in the same
integrated and rigorous manner as
other business risks. Our preference
is to take a risk-based approach,
focusing on the potential impacts on
ecosystem services and relating this to
biodiversity. The supply of fresh water,
for example, is a critical ecosystem
service on which our communities and
operations rely. Through effective
management of biodiversity we can
improve water security.
The requirements of our new
Group-wide integrated risk
management standard have now been
integrated into our current biodiversity
performance requirements. The
updated standard was piloted at
Los Bronces mine in Chile during
2012. This helped the mine to more
clearly relate biodiversity issues to its
day-to-day operations and some new
risks were identified.
Our biodiversity partner NGO,
Fauna & Flora International (FFI),
has also helped us to develop a
consistent methodology for
conducting high-level biodiversity
risk assessments, which articulate
the business case for biodiversity
management.
64 Anglo American plc Sustainable Development Report 2012