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Environmental, social and economic: all three of these aspects have been promoted by quarry remediation work that has become an important focus for local development. For some years, GSM has included in its commitments a targeted land policy aimed at ensuring optimal conditions for the management of quarry sites after their closure, either as experimental sites or as sites of particular interest. This approach, based on the regional integration of activities in line with local needs, is one of the fundamental aspects of the company’s environmental policy. In partnership with the municipality of Pont-à-Mousson (Meurthe-et-Moselle, around 30 kilometres northwest of Nancy), GSM Lorraine, one of GSM’s five regions, has created a river mooring stage on the Moselle and an ecology area on the pasturelands at the town’s southern entrance.
| Pont-à-Mousson Ecology area |
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Between 2003 and 2005, in addition to extracting aggregate, GSM Lorraine carried out major remediation work at the proposed mooring stage, including earthworks and re-contouring, dredging the port access channel, hydraulic infrastructure, and so on. The landscape planting programme was then adapted following consultation with the local population. After obtaining the relevant administrative authorizations, and in consultation with the DIREN (Regional Department of the Environment), work included transplanting 200 marsh stitchwort (Stellaria palustris) plants, a protected species in this region. An area was also retained for this plant within the remediated site.The main goal in the remediation of the ecology zone was to ensure the viability of the areas of transplanted stitchwort. The programme also sought to maintain the highest possible ecological variety by targeting species judged most in need of protection (beavers), threatened (amphibians), disappearing (dragonflies) or liable to find at the site a specific living environment and to enrich the procession of wildlife (birds).
The seven-hectare site was classified under a Biotope Protection Order on 23 August 2004. With a view to protecting the marsh stitchwort and ensuring the long-term viability of the site’s biological diversity (which is covered by the Biotope Protection Order), a seven-member management committee has been established including GSM, the municipality of Pont-à-Mousson and the Association of Biology and Geology Teachers.
Its role is to oversee the maintenance of the site and any work required to preserve and develop biodiversity, and to carry out the scientific monitoring needed to assess the biodiversity and any changes that may be required to the management plan.In early 2006, ECOPASS awarded GSM Lorraine ISO 14001 certification for its entire production and marketing process, including two remediated ecological sites, one of which was “Saussaie Voirin”. This was the first experience in France for the aggregate industry.
The importance of the Saussaie Voirin site is that it combines two different opportunities in a relatively small site:
- the ecology area, providing a reservoir of biodiversity within the Moselle’s alluvial valley, the long-term viability of which is assured;
- a tourist attraction in the form of a mooring stage, in response to the rapid growth in markets for “green tourism” and river tourism that has been seen in the past few years.
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