HeidelbergCement sponsors Ecological Restoration conference
The end of September saw over 800 delegates from 66 countries gather at the tip of the African continent for the 8th International conference of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER).
With representatives from academia, non-governmental organisations, local government agencies, business and the United Nations, the focus was very much on restoring land, water and community resilience, and laying the path towards the UN decade on ecosystem restoration, which starts in 2021.
Building on a developing partnership with SER, HeidelbergCement was proud to sponsor the international conference for a second time. But our involvement did not end there, as we also delivered a special symposium in partnership with BirdLife International, on the importance of mineral extraction sites in contributing to restoring land and reversing biodiversity loss, but also in improving the livelihood of our neighbours.
Partaking in the conference had two major outcomes: firstly in terms of knowledge gain and secondly through raising awareness about the company’s biodiversity strategy including the
Mixing with academics from across the world for four days, allowed our in-house ecologists to acquire broader knowledge of relevant restoration techniques for post-extraction activities, which can be subsequently shared across our operations. Furthermore, it sparked new ideas for projects that could be developed across HeidelbergCement for example in the matter of erosion control at our African sites. It was also humbling to hear HeidelbergCement being referenced by externals as a leader in best practice biodiversity management.
Our stand in the exhibition hall was primarily advertising the next Edition of the Quarry Life Award, which will be in 2021, but also enabled the company to showcase wider sustainability work. This included our Sustainability Commitments 2030, which gave visitors inspiration into incorporating the UN Sustainable Development Goals into their strategies. Many of the visitors seemed to acknowledge that industries are proactively taking steps to reduce and mitigate their impact on the environment, and we were able to change people’s perception to understand that quarrying and nature can actually go hand in hand.
The conference was a great success and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with SER through their proposed African network and Invasive Alien Species thematic group.
