Biodiversity Study for Artimes limestone quarry of Patras cement plant

The Artimes limestone quarry, operating since the late 1960’s, for sourcing TITAN’s Patras Cement Plant mainly with limestone raw materials, represents a “show-case” of the rehabilitation policy followed by TITAN.

Starting from the early 1970’s, TITAN has been focused in systematic quarry restoration and rehabilitation, by applying best practices, including on-site nurseries for “growing” of young plants. Evidently, the progress of this 30-year commitment to re-forest and rehabilitate has been remarkable, and it is visible in the case of Artimes although in the meantime two wild fires partly destroyed the trees within the restored quarry areas.

TITAN took a step further in 2009, for recording the inventory and investigating the value of biodiversity, inside the quarry limits and in the surrounding areas. The study was conducted in cooperation with the University of Patras, with the target to better understand and quantify the different types of biodiversity, focusing on the achieved progress of growth of flora within the depleted and rehabilitated quarry areas. The study provided recommendations for alternative practices and selection of species, so as to improve the end-result and preserve the value of biodiversity in the site.