The BMP Guidance applies primarily to quarries, but the principles can be applied to any mining site. The primary audience for this document is therefore environmental officers and operations managers, because a basic understanding of natural resources provides a good foundation for interpreting and acting on the information in the guidance. The secondary audience is quarry managers, with whom responsibility for decision-making on quarry operations lies and whose role it is to ensure that biodiversity is sufficiently incorporated into extraction and rehabilitation planning. Throughout the BMP Guidance, questions are posed to help the reader apply the recommendations directly to his or her management scenario or context. Where relevant, decision trees, checklists, case studies and templates are provided. The guidance document was developed following a process of consultation and engagement with a range of experts, both amongst CSI membership and with external stakedholers including, Birdlife International, European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC), International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Reserva da Biosfera da Mata Atlântica (RMBA), European Aggregates Association (UEPG) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).