KwaZulu-Natal Business 2019-20 edition

Biodiversity and ecosystems
FOCUS
WWF-Mondi Water Stewardship
Programme
Mondi promotes a landscape approach to freshwater
stewardship. The focus of the long-standing WWF-
Mondi Water Stewardship Programme (previously
the WWF-Mondi Wetlands Programme) has grown
from managing and rehabilitating wetlands with
different groups of land-users (including Mondi)
to catalysing water stewardship at the landscape
scale, including ensuring collaboration and action by
different land-users in the uMngeni and Mvoti River
catchments, both of which are strategically important
water-supply areas for KZN’s economic hubs.
In 2014, following many years of collaboration,
Mondi Group and WWF launched a global
partnership to promote responsible forestry and a
sustainable pulp and packaging sector.
In 2017, this global partnership was extended for
another three years and the WWF-Mondi Wetlands
Programme was renamed the WWF-Mondi Water
Stewardship Partnership, reflecting its broadening
focus on catchment-based water stewardship. Water
stewardship assessments were conducted for the
Richards Bay mill and plantations in South Africa. This was
measured against the international Alliance for Water
Stewardship Standard, a globally-applicable framework
for major water users to understand their water use
and impacts. The outcomes are now being used to
investigate meaningful, cost-effective improvements to
management systems to meet the core requirements
and to advance some of the requirements.
In 2018, Mondi joined the WWF Climate Saver's
Programme, WWF's global platform to engage
businesses and industries on climate and energy.
Responsible forest management involves increasing
the long-term productivity and preserving ecosystem
values in rural landscapes and protecting
high conservation value areas such as wetlands.
Degradation of ecosystems and loss of habitats
and species has a significant negative effect on the
ecosystems that both communities and business
rely on. We are committed to protecting biodiversity
and ecosystem services in our forestry operations.
Maintaining an effective network of highconservation
value areas and valuable habitats,
and on imitating natural dynamics for key types of
ecosystems where possible, is another focus.
Eco-efficient products
The investment to expand our product range by
producing unbleached kraftliner in addition to
white-top kraftliner at the Richards Bay mill has
been welcomed by customers. Baywhite, Baycel
and Baykraft products are certified for food
packaging (ISEGA) and Mondi has adopted Good
Manufacturing Practice (externally certified).
39 KWAZULU-NATAL BUSINESS 2019/20