Extractive sites are profoundly interlinked with their territory. Through their life cycle, quarries modify
the landscape with machines progressing through mineral deposits and constantly creating a large
diversity of temporary habitats, sometimes left to evolve to ones that are more permanent. In many
cases, the biological role and ecosystem services provision of quarries are neglected though they are
playing a significant role as stepping-stones in ecological networks and regulating green infrastructure
in landscapes. In highly urbanized and controlled landscapes, quarries are an exceptional opportunity to
maintain rare and threatened transient habitats hosting fugitive species.
Low perception on the biodiversity potential in quarries would jeopardize dynamic management for
such biodiversity installation and could prevent an optimal restoration of ecosystem services in the
post‑exploitation phase. On active sites, promotion of biodiversity management requests training
campaign increasing awareness and competencies. Such trainings are facilitated when they are based
on the values and knowledge of the actors at all positions of the business ecosystem. An understanding
of biodiversity perception of the sector is thus necessary to identify potential lockouts and opportunities
This report is a deliverable of the Life in Quarries project (LIFE14 NAT/BE/000364 hereafter “Life in
Quarries”) under action D6 – Socio cultural monitoring of communication actions / Consciousness of the
sector for biodiversity – following the implementation of the project between 2015 and 2021. It
synthetizes the results of quarry personnel interviews conducted in 2016 and 2021 aimed at assessing
knowledge evolution on quarries’ biodiversity resulting from the implementation of concrete
conservations actions (project’s actions C), the development of quarry personnel awareness and
understanding through trainings (action E5) and implementation of dynamic biodiversity management
(action D5).
According to the objective of action D6, it allows to:
“Evaluate precisely how the communication, dissemination and demonstration actions of the LIFE IN
QUARRIES have changed the behaviors and motivations of the sectors and to reveal the innovation
lock-out provided by an effective awareness raising strategy.”
