The ICMM Nature Position Statement: Meeting the Commitments

Global | Sunday, January 26, 2025
Reading Time : 8 Minutes

Nature is important to the mining industry, and miners are setting a high bar. In January 2024, the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) released a nature position statement, to help its members work towards the nature-positive goals outlined by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity worldwide.

The landscape of mining standards across the industry reflects a commitment to continual improvement of environmental, social and governance standards. The ICMM nature position statement is an impressive initiative for its members and has implications for other mining companies around the world, as the ICMM is part of the Consolidated Mining Standard Initiative (CMSI), which aims to reduce the number of disparate mining standards while also raising the overall level. Our team believes aligning with ICMM’s nature position statement is an excellent place for mining companies to begin to take action to address nature-related impacts and dependencies.

The ICMM approach and commitments

The ICMM statement is divided into five areas with the following 15 commitments:

Direct operations

Respecting legally designated protected areas
Not exploring or mining in UNESCO World Heritage sites
Identifying and addressing risks and impacts to biodiversity and using the mitigation hierarchy to achieve net gain or at least no net loss (NNL) by closure against a 2020 or earlier baseline

Value chain

Identifying source locations and distribution routes with significant nature-related risks
Engaging in and/or supporting initiatives to halt and reverse nature loss
Rolling out requirements for direct suppliers to disclose the results of their own nature-related impacts, dependencies, risks, and opportunities assessments

Landscapes

Recognizing the broad variety of ecosystems found across mining installations worldwide, members should choose at least one of the following options:

Restore, Conserve, Regenerate: Contributing to the GBF’s 30x30 target by building capacity, funding, or enacting restoration activities
Collaborative Landscape-Scale Action: Working with stakeholders to proactively halt and reverse nature loss by addressing cumulative impacts or enhancing conservation, restoration and/or resilience
Repurpose and regenerate: Harnessing value from and/or repurposing abandoned and legacy sites to halt and reverse nature loss

Systems transformation

These solutions will also be case-specific, and members should choose at least one of the following

Collaborative research and development: contributing to industry-wide initiatives in and solutions for footprint reduction, minimising legacy impact and leading the transformation to a circular economy
Advanced data sharing: collaborating with local, regional and global data sharing platforms to increase and share biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring to support decision-making and action
Sustainable finance: Partnering with investors and financial institutions to develop or invent sustainable financing mechanisms to mobilise private sector funding for nature

Governance and transparency

Integrating nature considerations into decision-making tools and processes
Disclosing nature-related impacts, dependencies, risks, and opportunities (priority locations 2026, material issues and/or value chain by 2030)
Developing robust metrics for reporting progress from 2026.

The ICMM’s nature-position statement aligns with the aims of performance area 19 (Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services and Nature) of the CMSI, a draft of which was recently out for consultation.

The challenge of these nature-positive commitments

ICMM’s position statement builds on the structure of earlier carbon commitments. Although the approach is similar to those earlier initiatives, the process itself will be quite different.

“Biodiversity is not like carbon,” says Dr. Kyle Knopff, a Senior Principal Ecologist with WSP’s biodiversity team. “It is intrinsically local – there's no global unit of biodiversity value that's interchangeable everywhere across the planet”. An experienced terrestrial ecologist, Dr. Knopff knows biodiversity is distinct at every mine site. “If you are an organization with a site in West Africa, a site in Australia, and a site in northern Canada, every single one of them is going to be different and unique.”

The solutions companies choose for each site will be, by necessity, equally unique. However, some of the elements will be common across all sites, which can help companies establish a starting point.

Take water, for instance.

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Double materiality and reporting commitments

Water is fundamental to the mining process. It’s also a good illustration of double materiality: the ability to both affect and be affected by nature. Mining impacts local water quality, which has further implications for life associated with that water. But mining also depends on water to function.

Going forward, mining companies must carefully consider not only how to track but also how to report both their nature-related dependencies and the methods they will use to address and mitigate the potential risks those dependencies pose to their business both now and in the future. Sometimes impact will outweigh dependencies, or the reverse. Dr. Knopff explains. “In many parts of northern Canada, for instance, water is everywhere. The impact side of the equation can be significant: mining and exploration companies must demonstrate that they’re not polluting lakes and streams and managing surface water appropriately. But from a dependency perspective, plentiful water is readily available, and thus water availability is not a significant risk to operations. However, the amount of water that must be managed will vary over time due to climate change. In future, perhaps mining flooding could be an issue. These potential future risks must also be accounted for.”

Conversely, mines in more arid parts of the world, or where water is needed for other users (e.g., agriculture, drinking water), water availability may pose a significant risk. Climate change and increasing human demand are making water a precious resource in many parts of the world where supply was previously stable. In 2024, Phoenix underwent 100 days in a row of 100°F temperatures. The Colorado River is producing less water than it used to, with significantly more demand. In these circumstances, dependency becomes a significant issue, and the risks pertaining to water availability assume greater importance in addition to managing extreme weather events.

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How to begin

The mining industry has a vast well of existing knowledge and capabilities which can be harnessed to meet the new requirements. The sector has measured and tracked nature-related metrics for decades, and this longstanding focus means they are much more prepared and ready than other sectors. The next step is to extract the relevant data already being collected, to implement the necessary on-the-ground activities and achieve beneficial outcomes.

We have worked with mining leaders and early adopters for more than a decade, encouraging companies to understand that biodiversity is a core asset to be protected. “We help companies navigate the complexities of moving this process forward,” says Dr. Knopff. Understanding the implications of a no net loss commitment is critical to this process and WSP is particularly well positioned to provide this insight and support realistic target setting as we did for IAMGOLD. “We have hands-on experience working with clients to define their baseline conditions and amalgamate their existing data to efficiently express those conditions.” Using top-tier GIS resources to maximize client’s own data, our team assists companies to quantify impacts and outline the actions needed to achieve their goal of no net loss by closure.

That goal is not an impossibility. Ambatovy, the high-profile nickel and cobalt mine in Madagascar, is poised to successfully deliver no net loss of forests at the site. WSP undertook a biodiversity assessment and mitigation planning for the project. “Ambatovy is an example of a mine already working to achieve the outcomes laid out in the ICMM position statement. This is what we mean when we say the mining sector is ahead of the game in many respects,” says Dr. Knopff. Having robust data to draw on will be helpful, especially as some of the deadlines for ICMM position statement are quickly approaching.

Start now

“The ICMM position statement introduced some rapidly approaching timelines,” Dr. Knopff explains. “By 2026 members must be already in the process of implementing actions around their existing operations. They’ll need to make rapid choices: to use a 2020 baseline or an earlier one; and to select which specific activities to undertake, and in what order. Once the strategic plan has been set and the actions implemented, members will need to report back to the ICMM on their direct operations by 2026. By 2030, they’ll also need to report on their broader value chain impacts and dependencies.”

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Now is the time to begin. Dr. Knopff agrees. “If you intend to follow the ICMM guidelines and report in 2026, you’ll want start as soon as you can. Beyond the ICMM requirements, there’s also increasing pressure from governments. The CSRD in Europe has mandatory reporting requirements which cover biodiversity and ecosystems alongside other environmental topics. Aligned with this, the TNFD offers robust guidelines to get started - although adoption of the disclosures is voluntary. If you want to be a successful part of the initiative, start as soon as possible, and get good help.”

Takeaways

Here are some general points of guidance to help companies address performance in relation to the ICMM commitments:

Educate and raise awareness at the highest levels Executive leadership needs to understand the importance of nature and the need to reduce impact. The Board should be kept abreast of issues to be able to ask the right questions of the management team. Senior leadership must communicate the need to assess, commit to, and disclose nature-related issues in the near and long term.
Review the ICMM commitments and existing corporate practices and data to understand what the company is already doing and identify any gaps. Learn from others doing similar work—best practices can be shared across the sector. Once a budget has been allocated, examine the systems in place and leverage existing data. Focus on gaps or easy wins, and what your company can tackle first.
Track your efforts Documentation is critical for disclosure readiness, and provide the proof needed for sustainability claims.
Upskill employees on the evolving standards and nature’s interconnectivity with other areas of importance. Examine the traditional methods of Indigenous Peoples and collaborate with local communities and stewards.
Set realistic goals and targets Once you understand your baseline, and what resources it will take, set achievable goals and targets.
Engage with communities Due diligence is an ongoing part of the process, to ensure engagement, agreement, and respect for human rights.

Meeting the ICMM commitments is not impossible, and the process does not have to be a mystery. Much exemplary work has already been done. Mining companies have collected environmental data for years. With expert help, they can leverage these data to achieve their commitments and goals on nature.