Biodiversity
Biodiversity impact management
Under its 2031 Environmental and Climate Change Strategy, the Company aims to ensure that its operations cause zero biodiversity loss.
The Company has in place PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel’s Position Statement on Biodiversity, which outlines the key principles and commitments as well as allocates responsibilities within the Group’s corporate organisation to effectively manage its impact on ecosystems. Our biodiversity impact management system covers all life cycle phases of the Company’s projects.
Impact on biodiversity in terms of value chain and life cycle stages
Nornickel’s mining, processing, and energy facilities are organised into production clusters located in shared areas, exerting both individual and cumulative environmental impacts. Given their technological interconnections and geographical proximity, it is impractical to categorise enterprises along the value chain for biodiversity monitoring purposes. Biodiversity impact management varies depending on the location of the Group’s industrial sites.
Biodiversity conservation matters are also included in the relevant section of PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel’s Supplier Code of Conduct, which is binding for the Company’s contractors.
Assessment of Nornickel’s impact on biodiversity
Big Scientific Expedition For more details on the Big Scientific Expedition, please see Nornickel’s website dedicated to biodiversity conservation, Sustainability Reports for 2021–2023, and the relevant report of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
As part of developing a comprehensive biodiversity impact management system, Nornickel launched the Big Scientific Expedition – a large‑scale project aimed at conducting baseline ecosystem surveys. The project’s primary objective is to collect up‑to‑date data on biodiversity across the Company’s footprint and to develop recommendations for mitigating environmental impact. The biodiversity survey became the most extensive ecosystem study since the Soviet era.
The key feature of the Big Scientific Expedition was collaboration between researchers and scientists from nature reserves who have the most complete statistical data on biodiversity within their respective areas over the past decades.
The expeditions involved a detailed study of the ecosystems near the Company’s mining, production, and energy facilities across three regions: the Trans‑Baikal Territory, the Murmansk Region, and the Taimyr Peninsula.
Research highlights
The research studies updated the delineation of the impact areas of the Company’s facilities and assessed biodiversity both in areas adjacent to production sites (within the impact areas) and in locations beyond the radius of negative impact, where plant and animal communities original/typical of the region are found
The biodiversity of plant, vertebrate, and invertebrate species was assessed. More than 1,370 species of key groups of organisms were recorded
Indicator species reflecting the condition of local ecosystems were identified
Key factors and extent of negative impact of the Company’s facilities on the biodiversity of local ecosystems were identified
An Integrated Ecosystem Health Indicator (IEHI) was calculated, serving as a basis for the Company’s target biodiversity KPI A description of the IEHI is available in Nornickel’s 2023 Sustainability Report.
Nornickel continues refining the IEHI to ensure the most efficient assessment of the environmental impact of industrial enterprises. Nornickel continues its track record of partnering with research institutions for biodiversity conservation.
In 2024, the Company supported an artistic and educational initiative titled “Artistic Perspectives of Exploration: The Explorer and the Artist”, celebrating the completion of the Big Scientific Expedition’s second year. The project included several exhibitions, alongside a broad educational programme. As part of the project, Russia’s leading specialist museums and private collectors presented exhibits from their collections dedicated to the cultural understanding of the North and expeditions in the Russian Arctic in the last 400 years.
Ecosystem services
In 2024, Nornickel conducted an assessment of ecosystem services – the tangible and intangible benefits people derive from nature, including those arising from ecosystem use.
As part of this assessment, stakeholders were surveyed to evaluate the importance of listed ecosystem services, determine their frequency and purpose of use, identify specific natural resources used by respondents, assess the availability of alternative resource sources, and more. According to the survey, a total of 24 relevant ecosystem services were identified at the Norilsk site and within the Energy Division, with five of them prioritised. A total of 28 ecosystem services, including five priority ones, are relevant for the Kola site.
The assessment provided an updated view of the Company’s impact on ecosystems across its regions of operation and validated the effectiveness of the selected environmental protection measures.
Biodiversity conservation efforts
Nornickel is developing initiatives to reduce the pressure on ecosystems based on the “avoid–reduce–restore–compensate” principle. This approach helps mitigate the indirect impact of the Company’s operations on biodiversity. Nornickel goes beyond reducing its indirect impact on biodiversity, implementing additional corrective measures.
| Facility | Biodiversity‑related initiatives in 2024 |
|---|---|
| The Trans‑Baikal Division’s mining and processing enterprise |
|
| Norilsk Industrial District facilities |
|
| The Kola site’s metals and mining enterprise |
|
In 2024, an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), unprecedented for Russia, was deployed at the Kola site’s metals and mining enterprise. The UAS is designed for online air monitoring while airborne, surface water sampling with delivery to the operator, visual monitoring of site conditions, detection of thermal anomalies, identification of damage, and detection of violations of operating rules and standards (a proprietary solution of the Company). The device can be used not only at industrial facilities but also in protected areas to monitor animal populations.
Collaboration with protected areas
In line with its long‑term strategy to maintain biodiversity in its regions of operation and preserve the unique Arctic nature, Nornickel also organises regular volunteer campaigns, fosters scientific volunteering, supports nature reserves, and finances studies on Red Data Book animals.
As part of collaboration with the Joint Directorate of Taimyr Nature Reserves, a joint programme was developed to study the rare Putorana subspecies of snow sheep with an isolated habitat area, listed in Russia’s Red Data Book and the IUCN Red List. In 2024, comprehensive research continued to study this inhabitant of the protected areas on the Putorana Plateau, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site.
On the Kola Peninsula, Nornickel has traditionally collaborated with the Lapland and Pasvik Nature Reserves.
These efforts include monitoring the population of wild reindeer in the Lapland Nature Reserve, with observations and environmental assessment both in the reserve and in the facilities’ impact areas, forecasting changes, and substantiating an optimal number of species listed in the Red Data Book to further regulate population size. In 2024, there were no indications of the Company’s impact on the ecosystems of the Lapland Nature Reserve.
Specialists from the Pasvik Nature Reserve also conduct regular environmental monitoring within the reserve’s boundaries and in areas affected by the Company’s operations. The research aims to determine the content of pollutants in ecosystems and their accumulation in plants and animals. Along with monitoring, the movement of mobile forms of heavy metals between ecosystem components is analysed, and the condition of biological organisms is assessed. In the research areas, changes in animal species distribution due to climatic shifts have also been observed. Encounters with bird species typically found further south and the wintering of previously unrecorded species have become increasingly common.
In 2024, Nornickel began its collaboration with the Kandalaksha Nature Reserve, a protected area of great importance to the Murmansk Region. The collaboration is aimed at studying the biodiversity of the Murmansk Tundra Reserve, with a comprehensive survey of its western part conducted for the first time in the reporting year. The survey identified 124 species of vascular plants and lichens (including two protected and one alien species), one species of amphibians, one species of reptiles, 47 species of birds (including four protected species), and 10 species of mammals.
| Indicator | Pasvik Nature Reserve | Lapland Nature Reserve | Putoransky Nature Reserve |
|---|---|---|---|
| On the IUCN Red List, including | 5 | 110 | 328 |
| 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 12 | 12 |
| 2 | 8 | 11 |
| 0 | 89 | 301 |
| On Russia’s Red Data Book, including | 23 | 33 | 20Seven species are not on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, but are included in Russia’s Red Data Book. |
| 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 14 | 0 |
| 8 | 15 | 3 |
| 10 | 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 1 | 8 |
| On the Murmansk Region’s and Krasnoyarsk Territory’s Red Data Books | 118 | 163 | 70 |
In 2024, the Company continued its efforts to preserve the gyrfalcon population under an agreement with the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Nornickel collaborates with the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) to monitor the condition of aquatic communities and develop science‑based recommendations for replenishing biological resources in aquatic ecosystems. These recommendations include identifying sites and determining the maximum feasible volumes for releasing juvenile fish of valuable species in the Norilsk District. Similar studies will be conducted on a regular basis until 2051.
Nornickel’s Head Office supports species diversity conservation efforts by its Divisions across the Company’s footprint and incorporates global best practices aligned with the goals of the Kunming‑Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework into its annual biodiversity conservation and monitoring activities.
The Company’s conservation measures have become more targeted and effective in practice. Biodiversity conservation is one of the most fascinating fields of work in the Arctic, despite its harsh climate. The return of Red Data Book species to the region, and even more so the discovery of new species like the Putoranchik beetle, bring great joy. Key environmental indicators are imposed by laws and government policies, whereas biodiversity conservation remains a voluntary commitment by the Company.
Stanislav Seleznev, Vice President for Ecology and Industrial Safety