IUCN and the HOLCIM Group have worked together on a global scale since 2007. Its biggest achievement has been the development of a biodiversity management system (BMS) that applies to company operations around the world. Recently, the company signed a new agreement, covering 2012 to 2014, to implement this system.

In South America, IUCN agreed to collaborate with HOLCIM Ecuador in three areas: advice and monitoring of the implementation of the BMS, and within this, a Biodiversity Action Plan; support for capacity-building for local stakeholders about the importance of biodiversity; and follow-up on policies and regulations related to biodiversity.

HOLCIM’s action plan aims to improve biodiversity conservation through reforestation and revegetation of native species from ecosystems that border the business’s operation sites. The expectation is to restore natural conditions to achieve reintegration of native fauna to the area.

For Walter Gonzalez, Coordinator of Sustainable Development for HOLCIM Ecuador, “the signing of the agreement guarantees consultations with IUCN in pursuit of biodiversity management and the success of planned actions. By working together as strategic partners, we will seek protection, restoration and improvement of biodiversity in and around our operation sites, identifying risks and opportunities for biodiversity and associated ecosystems, monitoring and periodically informing stakeholders on the progress we achieve.”

Víctor Hugo Inchausty, Interim Regional Director of IUCN-South America (UICN-Sur), affirmed that “the global transition toward sustainability has ceased to be an option and become a necessity. All of society must direct its efforts toward that process; this step that has been taken with Holcim is being replicated in South America, in Ecuador, as an example of environmental commitment and company responsibility to the environment.”

For more information: arturo.mora@iucn.org