Biodiversity harnassed to enhance natural splendour

Appreciate, too, that while an abundant natural environment should be a given, it is increasingly important that humans act to conserve and encourage biodiversity.

Biodiversity is defined as the diversity of life, habitats and the components making up these systems. Since this includes human beings and our activities, we need to ensure that negative impacts on the natural environment are mitigated and if possible, eliminated.

Adhering to biodiversity laws and taking our responsibility seriously, Sappi regularly reports on what it is doing to conserve biodiversity and protect the natural environment.

We have also aligned ourselves with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to follow international standards. Our focus includes reducing water usage, energy, and solid waste at our mills.

In Sappi Forests, we measure our wide-ranging impacts, from the moment of land acquisition to the harvesting of the planted trees and transportation to the mill gate.

To conserve biodiversity, a set of targets for Sappi Forests have been drafted that includes reducing alien invasives and improving the condition of habitats and ecosystems on Sappi land.

An assessment of biodiversity importance has confirmed that 40 of the 83 areas originally identified as having conservation importance, are of irreplaceable value.

A further 30 of the sites are of lesser, but still significant, conservation value from a terrestrial or aquatic perspective. Sappi is duty-bound to ensure that these sites are managed to maintain, and in some cases, to restore the values that make them important.

During this year’s World Biodiversity Day, may we all celebrate our natural abundance and work harder on our conservation efforts.