Why it matters

Biodiversity is the variety of all living things and their interactions with each other and their environment to create a self-balancing ecosystem. Biodiversity is essential to agriculture and its long-term productivity. As the world’s largest provider of crop inputs and services, Nutrien has a role to play in supporting biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. 

Biodiversity is important to Nutrien, our customers and the agri-food value chain as an essential piece to maintaining and/or enhancing the productivity of agricultural and forestry lands.

Our work on biodiversity supports the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Our actions

• Taking steps to understand our impacts and dependencies – Nutrien supported the development of the Nature-related Financial Disclosures (“TNFD”) pilot program reporting framework, which provides companies with guidance for assessing and disclosing its dependencies and impacts on nature, and its associated operational and downstream risks and opportunities. Although TNFD encourages companies to consider all physical realms of nature (from soil to the atmosphere), we focused our assessments on biodiversity and water.
• Minimizing the impact of our operations - We recognize the intrinsic value of protected areas and legally recognized areas of high biodiversity. Nutrien participates in certain reclamation and remediation projects and we also work with environmental authorities to restore land used for mining with native plant varieties, which support biodiversity. For example, since the late 1970s, we have reclaimed nearly 30,000 acres of mined land and restored 10,000 acres of off-site wetlands at both mine sites, planting approximately 30 million trees. Learn more
• In our value chain - Nutrien’s agriculturally related products and services are designed to improve productivity on existing agricultural land. We offer agronomic services that build productive healthy soils for managed landscapes that help protect natural carbon sinks and support biodiversity. In partnership with governments, NGOs and food companies, Nutrien is exploring ways to shift marginally productive agricultural land to acres that foster more biodiverse ecosystems on managed lands.

Biodiversity highlights from across our operations

Balancing wetland impacts 

• Since 2021, we have worked with Ducks Unlimited Canada (“DUC”) to protect and restore drained wetlands throughout Saskatchewan to balance the wetland impact of the Rocanville, SK Potash tailings area expansion. Already more than 20 wetland basins have been restored across 290 acres, with work ongoing. Lands purchased for restoration are either retained by DUC or sold with conservation easements to protect them in perpetuity, with plans for future monitoring.

Relocating tortoises 

• During the expansion of our White Springs phosphate mining operations in northern Florida, we worked with state officials to relocate gopher tortoises, a threatened species, to a 58-acre protected on-site reclaimed phosphate mine.

Planting cocoa in deforested areas 

• Nutrien provides funding to the Cacau Floresta (Cocoa Forest) Project, coordinated by The Nature Conservancy Brazil, to encourage family farmers to plant cocoa and recover deforested or unproductive lands in the Amazon biome. Cocoa is a species native to the Amazon with high market value, which can help to improve farmers’ income and family food security.

Screening for deforestation 

• Our operations in Brazil are using a third-party digital tool to automate the screening of new and existing grower customers for indications of illegal deforestation activity and slave labor. If the database results indicate potential issues, we will work with that grower and a third party to bring expected change to their practices within a reasonable period. If the grower does not agree to this engagement or meet the compliance within an expected time frame, we will no longer do business with them.

Incorporating soil biology into agronomic advice 

• Nutrien’s soil biology report uses DNA analysis of microorganisms that are a part of plant growth, nutrient cycling and a plant stress protection mechanism, to inform agronomic advice on the use of plant nutritional products.