IUCN (The International Union for Conservation of Nature) and Rio Tinto have entered into a formal collaboration agreement, committing to work together over a three year period. The relationship aims to help Rio Tinto 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.

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

CEO Rio Tinto, Tom Albanese said, “We look forward to working with IUCN and developing innovative solutions to biodiversity and other sustainable development issues that are an important component of our operations. Through our collaborative efforts, we hope to develop programmes 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 programmes, explore emerging green markets and how they relate to Rio Tinto and the mining sector, and build benchmarks for biodiversity management.

IUCN is a democratic union with more than 1,000 government and NGO member organizations, and some 10,000 volunteer scientists in more than 150 countries. IUCN’s work is supported by 1,100 professional staff in 62 countries and hundreds of partners in public, NGO and private sectors around the world.

Rio Tinto recognises that the conservation and responsible management of the environment and natural resources – such as land, water, biodiversity and air – are important business and societal issues. The Group’s strategy commits Rio Tinto to achieving the goal of a “net positive impact” on biodiversity – ensuring that biodiversity ultimately benefits as a result of Rio Tinto’s activities in a region.