The position that quarrying can play in nature restoration and biodiversity acquire was celebrated on the Quarries & Nature 2025 awards ceremony throughout March, hosted by the Mineral Merchandise Affiliation (MPA).
It’s an occasion supposed to laud the perfect present examples of wildlife habitat creation by way of the delicate operation, administration and restoration of mineral extraction websites, say the organizers.
Amongst these talking and presenting awards had been Chair of Pure England Tony Juniper CBE, RSPB Chief Govt Beccy Speight and Director of Panorama Restoration at The Wildlife Trusts, Rob Stoneman.
Tony Juniper mentioned: “A few of these restoration schemes are actually fairly mind-blowing, delivering nature restoration at scale, similtaneously producing the sources we have to construct properties and infrastructure, growing landscapes that help local weather resilience, whereas additionally creating incredible locations for households to get near wildlife.
“All of this presents a large alternative for a rustic that’s struggling to fulfill competing environmental targets. With higher strategic planning, extra joined-up considering and with all stakeholders on board, the mineral merchandise trade might be a well-known vanguard in constructing a really sustainable society.”
Beccy Speight mentioned: “We’ve seen some incredible restoration work at Quarries & Nature, and I applaud mineral merchandise for being an trade that has the ambition and is getting on with it, proving it could ship financial progress and nature restoration on the identical time.
“There’s an pressing must create new habitats, to create more room for nature, and that’s precisely what the trade is doing. To see that occuring is basically inspiring. We’ve seen highly effective examples of what’s doable when enterprise and conservation work collectively, and I encourage MPA members to maintain their ambition and hold delivering revolutionary options to assist nature flourish, as a result of we’d like it now greater than ever.”
Now of their 54th yr, the independently-judged awards have reportedly celebrated tons of of former quarries remodeled into new areas for wildlife. Certainly, most of the UK’s most treasured nature reserves and nation parks have been created by way of quarrying, says the MPA, and its members “proceed to convey to fruition new areas of habitat that help among the UK’s rarest and most endangered species”.
Lex Russell, MPA Chair, mentioned: “The mineral merchandise trade is unrivalled by another relating to a mixture of experience and on-the-ground supply for nature. Working with associate organisations, MPA members have a confirmed monitor report relating to rising biodiversity by way of quarry restoration and land administration.
“This yr’s Quarries & Nature awards present extra proof of the intensive legacy the trade has constructed over many years. There has by no means been a extra essential second to recognise the important position of home uncooked supplies within the economic system and our society, alongside the long-term contribution the trade makes to nature. Whereas others speak about potential, minerals producers have really been delivering optimistic outcomes and we’re dedicated to doing so going ahead.”
The 2025 awards noticed nearly 40 entries from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Eire in the primary Restoration award and 4 Biodiversity award classes of Innovation, Panorama Scale, Deliberate Restoration, and Particular person & Group Contribution.
Winners of the Cooper-Heyman Cup for excellent achievement in quarry restoration had been Tarmac and RSPB at Langford Quarry close to Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire. The partnership has “remodeled an space of 122 hectares of the previous sand and gravel quarry right into a mosaic of wetlands, lowland meadows, moist woodland and agriculture”.
The judges mentioned that “this extremely spectacular web site is a key element of the broader landscape-scale restoration works being undertaken alongside the Trent by the minerals sector” and there was a “excessive degree of experience proven within the design and supply in partnership with the RSPB”.
Extremely recommended within the restoration class had been Heidelberg with Smiths Concrete and Warwickshire Wildlife Belief for Bubbenhall Wooden and Meadows Nature Reserve; and in Oxfordshire Smith & Sons (Bletchington) with Linear Fisheries (Oxford) had been extremely recommended for Tar Farm Lakes.
Within the Biodiversity – Innovation class, which recognises imaginative approaches that advance greatest practices, the winners had been Tarmac with Cranfield College for measuring and integrating biodiversity web acquire and carbon sequestration into restoration at Maxey Quarry in Cambridgeshire and Wivenhoe Quarry in Essex. Runners up within the Innovation class had been Cemex for the conservation grazing utilizing a ‘digital fence’ at Rugeley Quarry close to Cannock Chase, Staffordshire.
Staffordshire restoration schemes had been additionally joint winners of the Biodiversity – Panorama Scale class, which celebrates initiatives that join with their environment to ship on the Lawton ideas of ‘Making Area for Nature’[1] — extra, larger, higher and joined areas of nature conservation. Holcim at Cauldon Cement Quarry and Caldon Low Combination Quarry shared the prize with Heidelberg at Barton Quarry. Extremely recommended within the Panorama Scale class had been Tarmac for Arcow and Dry Rigg Quarries in North Yorkshire and Holcim for Little Paxton Quarry in Cambridgeshire.
Winner of the Biodiversity – Deliberate Restoration class, highlighting schemes which can be authorized however but to be delivered, and can ship biodiversity advantages in future, was Heidelberg for restoration at Birch Quarry in Essex, with Tarmac extremely recommended for his or her work at Wivenhoe Quarry, additionally in Essex.
Lastly, 5 individuals acquired awards for his or her private dedication and contribution to enhancing biodiversity at restored quarries, together with awards for a quarry group and a volunteer group which have gone above and past, and the 15-year conservation partnership between Cemex and the RSPB.
Mark Russell, MPA Govt Director of Planning & Mineral Assets, mentioned: “We’re delighted that our achievements proceed to be recognised by the UK’s main conservation our bodies with whom now we have longstanding partnerships. Sadly the Authorities persistently fails to understand how our trade is uniquely positioned to instantly assist convert aspirations for nature restoration and biodiversity into management and motion on the bottom. We hope that this yr’s Quarries & Nature occasion triggers wider recognition and debate. Moreover offering important, domestically sourced supplies, we’re one of many few industries that has demonstrated repeatedly it could ship tangible options to the UK’s nature restoration challenges, and we’re able to work with all stakeholders to guard and improve biodiversity.”
“The minerals trade has a protracted and confirmed monitor report of delivering new areas for wildlife by way of the accountable administration, restoration and aftercare of quarries. In partnership with the main conservation our bodies, our sector has already created greater than 90 sq. kilometres of precedence habitat with an extra 110 sq. kilometres already deliberate and dedicated.”
MPA Quarries & Nature Awards: Winners and commendations
