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Lagan Cement
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Sustainable Development
> Biodiversity
The Lagan Cement facility in Kinnegad is located on a 350 hectare site, comprising of a modern 700,000 tonne-per-year cement manufacturing factory with limestone and shale quarries. The site was first converted from farmland in 2000 when the site was a network of intensively managed agricultural fields which supported little except the crops and animals that were raised on the farm.
As part of Lagan Cement’s commitment to environmental sustainability, nature has been encouraged to develop and thrive on the site. Following a decade of gradual improvement of habitat and the elimination of fertilizers, the site is now home to, and supporting, a diverse array of wildlife. Many diverse habitats in the forms of ponds, settlement tanks, rock faces, sand pits, wet land, scrubland, and untended grassland and hedgerows have been formed. Grassland has been colonised by native species like gorse and willow, which are often considered nuisance species in a farming context. It is this variety of habitat that has resulted in a wide variety of flora and fauna.
Lagan Cement recognises that biodiversity is an extremely important aspect of environmental management and to mark 2010, the international year of biodiversity, Lagan Cement has planted a large area with plants specifically selected to encourage bees and butterflies.
Lagan Biodiversity Walk
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Lagan Cement has developed a Biodiversity Walk to allow the habitats of these species to become accessible to visitors to the site. These include the habitat of the Irish hare, a freshwater pond habitat, artificial wetlands, protected treeline, sand martin habitat, lake type habitat and the river where many interesting species of animal and plants can be seen. Information signs have been included at various points along the Biodiversity Walk, giving details on the habitats and variety of different plant and animal species that can be found.
Among the residents spotted at Lagan Cement are; housemartins, swallows, bats, kestrels, stoats, snipe, hedgehogs, pheasants, coots, frogs, rabbits, newts, hare, mallard ducks, herons, badgers, mute swans, peregrine falcons and kingfishers.
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