BHP Billiton

Partnership Details

BHP Billiton is the founding partner of Bush Blitz, Australia’s largest nature discovery project endeavouring to document the plants and animals on hundreds of properties across Australia’s National Reserve System including Indigenous Protected Areas. Bush Blitz is a globally unique cross-sector partnership between BHP Billiton, the Australian Government through the Australian Biological Resources Study and Earthwatch Australia. The program also draws on the knowledge and expertise of state and territory conservation, primary industry and agricultural agencies, Australia’s museums and herbaria, CSIRO, leading universities, the Atlas of Living Australia, Indigenous land managers and the Australian Science Teachers Association to document the biodiversity of the oldest continent on Earth and provide an international benchmark for biodiversity knowledge.

Stage II of Bush Blitz is supported by BHP Billiton Sustainable Communities, a charity established by BHP Billiton as part of its community investment program.  BHP Billiton employees act as research assistants in the field and support scientists with trapping species, collecting plant samples and processing specimens.  This provides a highly regarded professional development opportunity for BPH Billiton staff where they learn survey techniques on a wide variety of species and by the end of the expedition they have a broader understanding of Australia’s unique biodiversity and ecosystems.  Funding also enables the engagement of primary and secondary teachers through Earthwatch’s TeachLive program.

Since Bush Blitz began the numbers of potentially new species found are; 1,136 new fauna species, 27 new vascular plant species, 26 new lichen species and 4 new fungi species.  This provision of baseline scientific data will help protect Australia’s environment and biodiversity for future generations.