IUCN (The International Union for Conservation of Nature) and Australia's third largest mining firm Rio Tinto today entered into a formal collaboration agreement, committing to work together over a three-year period.

The relationship aims to help Rio Tinto strengthen its sustainable development efforts, environmental management and delivery of conservation outcomes, while enabling IUCN to increase its awareness and understanding of the conservation and business challenges facing the resources sector.

In a statement: "IUCN and Rio Tinto recognise that to find sustainable solutions to environmental and conservation challenges, cross-sector engagement and collaboration are critical," says IUCN's Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre. "IUCN engages broadly with leaders in the private sector about business's impact on the environment - as it believes if business is part of a problem it must also contribute to finding and delivering the solutions."

Chief Executive Officer Rio Tinto Tom Albanese said in a statement: "We look forward to working with IUCN and developing innovative solutions to biodiversity and other sustainable development issues that are an important component of our operations. Through our collaborative efforts, we hope to develop programmes and actions that will contribute to enhanced environmental performance - both for Rio Tinto and the broader resources sector."

The relationship will focus on further developing Rio Tinto's biodiversity programmes, explore emerging green markets and how they relate to Rio Tinto and the mining sector, and build benchmarks for biodiversity management.