HeidelbergCement and BirdLife International renew partnership
After six fruitful years of collaboration, HeidelbergCement and BirdLife International have renewed their global partnership, which is based on shared values of promoting biodiversity while using natural resources sustainably.
“In the past, BirdLife and its national partner organisations have helped us maximise the role our sites can play for biodiversity through better management of quarry operations and habitat creation post-extraction,” said Dr. Bernd Scheifele, CEO of HeidelbergCement after signing the new Memorandum of Understanding in 2018. “Our partnership is the perfect combination of global commitment and local action, which is why we look forward to opening the next chapter of our collaboration.”
Collaboration key to building for the future
The overall purpose of the partnership is to continue strengthening each organisation’s ability to achieve sustainable development and provide better protection for biodiversity at local sites, national and international levels and increase scientific as well as public knowledge about the high value of quarries to biodiversity.
“Using our expertise at an international and national level, we will work with HeidelbergCement employees across the business to engage and upskill them on habitat and species management, working together towards a positive impact on biodiversity,” explains Shane Sparg, BirdLife’s Conservation Partnership Manager, summarising the goals the partners set themselves for the next three years.
The Partnership has already celebrated many successes, for example safeguarding Common Tern populations (Sterna hirundo) and establishing an invasive alien species eradication programme. Building on this, Birdlife will focus on supporting HeidelbergCement in achieving the company’s Sustainability Commitments 2030, working towards the UN goal of halting biodiversity loss.
Since the beginning of the collaboration in 2011, the partners have funded 25 projects and initiatives across Europe, Africa and Asia, with a total budget of over €700,000.
About HeidelbergCement
HeidelbergCement is one of the world’s largest integrated manufacturers of building materials with leading market positions in aggregates, cement, and ready-mixed concrete. The company employs some 60,000 people at more than 3,000 locations in around 60 countries.
About BirdLife International
“BirdLife International is the world’s largest nature conservation Partnership. Together, we are 117 BirdLife Partners worldwide – one per country – and growing with 13 million members and supporters, over 7,000 local conservation groups and 7,400 staff.
BirdLife’s vision is a world rich in biodiversity, where people and nature live in harmony. We are driven by our belief that local people, working for nature in their own places but connected nationally and internationally through our global Partnership, are the key to sustaining all life on this planet. This unique local-to-global approach delivers high impact and long-term conservation for the benefit of nature and people.
BirdLife is widely recognised as the world leader in bird conservation. Rigorous science informed by practical feedback from projects on the ground in important sites and habitats enables us to implement successful conservation programmes for birds and all nature.”
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