NATURE

Protecting the natural world

Diamonds are one of nature’s greatest and most beautiful treasures, formed up to 3 billion years ago, and found in some of the world’s most remote, beautiful and wild environments.

Working in these ecosystems requires extreme care for nature. De Beers has managed nature reserves in Southern Africa for more than 130 years, and our sites have biodiversity management programmes to avoid, reduce or restore our impact on nature.

Today, De Beers’ conservation efforts are helping to protect vast swathes of land and keystone species across Southern Africa.

Our 2030 goal

We aim to secure 3 times more land for future generations than we impact, and fund partnerships that help to protect a further 13 million acres by 2030.

Progress towards this goal is underpinned by our Nature Positive Impact Pathways and science-based commitment that we aim to be on an externally validated path to nature-positive outcomes by 2030. This means halting and reversing nature loss by 2030 measured against a 2020 baseline.

Our approach

Limiting impact at our operations

We work to avoid, minimise, restore and, where necessary, offset our impacts on biodiversity. Each operation undertakes detailed biodiversity assessments and then develops a tailored and independently monitored biodiversity management programme.

Our approach

Restoring and rewilding landscapes

Beyond our operations, our ecology experts continue to manage hundreds of thousands of acres of nature reserves across South Africa and Botswana. Through focused rewilding efforts, we’ve helped to transform degraded landscapes into flourishing ecosystems, protecting vulnerable and keystone species and creating livelihood opportunities beyond mining.

We are working to secure long-term formal protection for 240,000 acres of these nature reserves – an area three times larger than the land we disturb – by 2030. Land donations to national parks and establishing protected status – supported by sustainable financing solutions – are just some of the ways we are doing this.

Our approach

Scaling impact through partnership

Protecting nature at scale requires collaboration. Beyond the land we directly manage, we work closely with governments, local communities and leading conservation organisations to expand our impact. Through partnerships such as Okavango Eternal with National Geographic, we are protecting ecosystems far beyond our operational footprint. Together we are advocating for the protection of over 13 million acres of critical ecosystems by 2030, to help safeguard the Okavango Delta, one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots.

Photo Credit: National Geographic/ Kostadin Luchansky