Biodiversity

For Rio Tinto, biodiversity refers to the variety of life on earth - the different animals, plants and micro-organisms, their genes and the ecosystems of which they are a part. Healthy ecosystems are essential in maintaining water, soil and air quality, the natural cycling of key elements and nutrients, and in contributing to human health.

As global biodiversity loss continues to increase, concern around the impacts of mining continues to grow, and this is reflected in changing expectations around the behaviours resource companies must demonstrate to gain access to land to explore and develop projects, as well as maintain our existing license to operate.

Rio Tinto has made the commitment to achieving a 'net positive impact' on biodiversity as a part of the way we do our business - put simply, we aim to ensure that biodiversity conservation ultimately benefits from our presence in a region.