OCP Group reiterates its commitment to biodiversity

OCP Group has set up a strategy to take the necessary measures to reduce its impacts on biodiversity and contribute to its conservation and improvement.

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Image : OCP

This article is sponsored by OCP

On the International Day for Biological Diversity, OCP Group, a world leader in the phosphate and fertilizer market, reiterates its commitment to the preservation and improvement of biodiversity. 

As a committed industrial player that is acutely aware of the threats to biodiversity, OCP Group has set up a strategy based on the knowledge, monitoring and evaluation of this heritage to take the necessary measures to reduce its impacts on biodiversity and contribute to its conservation and improvement.

In this context, each industrial site where the Group operates has been subject to a biodiversity analysis and an operating authorisation issued by the national authorities and has a management plan for its green spaces and surrounding areas while several projects are ongoing to rehabilitate and plant former mining lands. 

Biodiversity is an integral part of the subjects assessed prior to the opening of its new mines and the construction of its new industrial units. For example, OCP Group partnered with international experts to deliver a pilot study in the Boucraa mine and develop a best-in-class framework which will spread across all its sites.

Beyond the design phase, OCP conducts an ongoing assessment of the impact of its activity on biodiversity through studies that comply with international standards in this area. In this context, OCP is currently conducting a study led by a team of biodiversity experts and researchers.

This study consists in strengthening the mapping of the existing flora and fauna, listing endemic, rare, endangered species; assessing the natural regeneration of biodiversity of exploited land; and the pressures and threats of mining activity on biological diversity.

The study’s implementation is set to take place in four key phases, namely the assessment of the study, the inventory and diagnosis of biodiversity at the level of the targeted sites, the integrated assessment of biodiversity, and the proposal of an action plan for the preservation of the biodiversity of OCP’s operational sites. 

In addition OCP is also committed to improving biodiversity through several initiatives, including its mining rehabilitation and afforestation program, which by 2020, enabled the planting of 4,5 million trees for the benefit of the community. Adapted crops such as Argan and Olive trees are now growing on rehabilitated sites. Quinoa crop has also been tested in the Gantour region and OCP Group introduced in 2020 goji and rosemary as new alternative crops with very high added value. 

These initiatives illustrate the Group’s ambition to transform itself in a sustainable way over the last few years, making sustainability the core of its industrial strategy, with a view to reinforcing its status as one of the world’s most sustainable nutrition players.

Integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and based on a logic of continuous improvement, OCP Group’s sustainable development policy is translated into ambitious objectives that are constantly evolving to support growth and transform challenges into opportunities.

Production systems, investments in new technologies and agreements with partner countries and their local flagship organizations have enabled OCP to adopt a holistic approach with the aim of promoting an inclusive model with a sustainable impact that tends to create a green dynamic. This approach has enabled OCP Group to promote a symbiosis between the industrial ecosystem and the communities.

For further information, visit the sustainability page of the OCP website. 

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