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SITES
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Industry and Biodiversity It was once generally supposed that industrial development always implied some diminution in the quality of the natural environment. Whilst it must be accepted that all human activities must have some impacts, industrial areas need not be "biological deserts, " many plants and animals can live in industry's "backyard". In the past the fact that wildlife lived, and often thrived, on industrial sites was purely accidental as far as most companies were concerned. However, an increasing number of companies are now taking a serious interest in the conservation of biodiversity on and around their properties with Tioxide being one of the pioneers in this field. The conservation of wildlife is a logical progression from industry's traditional, although still vital, environmental role of pollution control and waste reduction. Conservation is about the future - what we do today about conserving the earth's living resources will have a profound effect on future generations. The earth's physical processes and all living species, including human beings, are inter-linked. In the long term it is impossible for a single species, or even a small collection of species, to survive without the support of this globally inter-linked diversity of living things. Conservation however, does not necessarily mean that developments and human progress must cease. On the contrary, ecology and economics are now totally interdependent. Industry and commerce provide the financial resources for conservation and only through carefully planned natural resource conservation is sustainable economic development possible. This was the message of the World Conservation Strategy launched in 1980 (IUCN 1980, Nicholson 1987) and reinforced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (often called the "Earth Summit") held in Rio de Janeiro in 1991 (HMSO 1994). The United Nation Environmental Programme stated that globally "biodiversity (was) one of the key environmental challenges" and consequently the Convention on Biological Diversity was launched at the Earth Summit. Governments are currently ratifying this Convention around the world. The details of the convention on biodiversity are extremely comprehensive
in scope, but basically it calls for the conservation of biological
diversity at a global, national and local level and links this conservation
initiative
with future sustainable development and economic growth. |
