Rio Tinto & Conservation Group Join Forces

One of the largest global environmental organisations, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and mining giant, Rio Tinto have entered into a formal collaboration agreement, committing to work together over a three year period.

Rio Tinto says the relationship aims to help strengthen its sustainable development efforts, environmental management and delivery of conservation outcomes, while enabling IUCN to increase its awareness and understanding of the conservation and business challenges facing the resources sector.

Director General of IUCN Julia Marton-Lefèvre says IUCN and Rio Tinto recognise that to find sustainable solutions to environmental and conservation challenges, cross-sector engagement and collaboration are critical.

Marton-Lefèvre says IUCN engages broadly with leaders in the private sector about business’s impact on the environment – as it believes if business is part of a problem it must also contribute to finding and delivering the solutions.

Chief Executive Officer Rio Tinto Tom Albanese says the mining giant is looking forward to working with IUCN and developing innovative solutions to biodiversity and other sustainable development issues that are an important component of its operations.

Albanese says through collaborative efforts, they hope to develop programs and actions that will contribute to enhanced environmental performance both for Rio Tinto and the broader resources sector.

The relationship will focus on further developing Rio Tinto’s biodiversity programs, explore emerging green markets and how they relate to Rio Tinto and the mining sector, and build benchmarks for biodiversity management.

Rio Tinto is headquartered in the UK with Rio Tinto Limited listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Rio Tinto’s business is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy (coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc) and iron ore. Activities span the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa.

IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) is one of the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organisation, with more than 1,000 government and NGO members and almost 11,000 volunteer experts in some 160 countries. IUCN is responsible for the publication of the Red List of Threatened Species, which identifies and lists endangered species, and the evaluation and monitoring of natural World Heritage Sites for consideration by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre.