Quarzwerke GmbH stands up for Biodiversity and joins the international initiative "Countdown 2010"
Frechen, 07 August 2008 – For a considerable period of time, Quarzwerke GmbH has been active in the field of high standard renaturation of its quarries and in 2007 it has been awarded the “German Sand and Gravel Award of Sustainability” . The preconditions for a successful recultivation providing hideaways for numerous (endangered) species are the topic of a project supervised by Professor Horst Bannwarth, a renowned biologist at the University of Cologne, who has been monitoring the high biodiversity at Quarzwerke´s Frechen recultivation area during the past couple of years. It has already become apparent that an extraordinary amount of endangered plants has colonized this special environment, like the yellow alkanet and the lesser centaury. The decisive factor for this is, in Prof. Bannwarth’s opinion, the mosaic pattern of a variety of surface materials. In cooperation with his students from the University of Cologne Prof. Bannwarth has started to draw up an inventory of plants, at the same time analyzing their specific framework conditions /surrounding factors. The project’s objective is to develop strategies on how biodiversity can be enhanced or, at least, maintained by an intelligent management of renaturation. The results of this study will provide valuable guidelines for enhancing biodiversity in future renaturation projects.
