GHACEM, Wildlife Society partner to conserve biodiversity
GHACEM Limited is partnering the Ghana Wildlife Society (GWS) to better manage land and forest resources at its mining sites.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the new partnership was signed at a ceremony last week.
GHACEM and GWS have since 2011 cooperated on the global level through their mother organisations, HeidelbergCement and Birdlife International respectively.
The second phase of that global partnership, which initially focused on Europe, has now been reviewed to incorporate Africa and Asia from 2015 to 2017.
The signing of the Mou, thus, brings the global partnership to the national level, with the exemplary biodiversity records of GHACEM earning Ghana the first spot in Africa.
This is especially so as GHACEM’s annual Quarry Life Awards (QLA) competition continues to seek and reward the most effective ideas on land reclamation.
Signing
The Managing Director of GHACEM, Mr Morten Gade, said at the signing ceremony that the new partnership would strengthen both organisations to better protect biodiversity in Ghana.
HeidelbergCement, he explained, would continue to promote comprehensive environmental management systems through its subsidiaries across the globe, including GHACEM.
“The ultimate goal is for biodiversity values to be integrated into our environmental management practices, alongside stakeholder engagement and local community interests,” he emphasised.
GHACEM, he stressed, had over many years demonstrated what it meant to be a biodiversity friendly company, reiterating that proactive measures were taken to integrate environmental management and ecological restoration in the company’s daily quarry operations
“We will forever enhance our knowledge about Ghana’s important biodiversity and the role of a responsible mining industry in conserving and promoting the added-value that such partnerships bring,” he added.
For her part, the President of the Ghana Wildlife Society, Prof. Yaa Ntiamoa-Badu, hailed the partnership with GHACEM as “a strategic partnership” towards the achievement of the goals of GWS and Birdlife International.
She said Birdlife International and its patrons across the world shared a joint mission, vision and objective for protecting biodiversity.
