Seeking an ecologically defensible calculation of net loss/gain of biodiversity

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain how proponents of biodiversity offsetting have sought to produce an ecologically defensible mechanism for reconciling economic development and biodiversity conservation. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyses a case study biodiversity offsetting mechanism in New South Wales, Australia. Michel Callon’s framing and overflowing metaphor is used to explain how accounting devices are brought into the mechanism, to (re)frame a space of calculability and address anxieties expressed by conservationists about calculations of net loss/gain of biodiversity. Findings The analysis shows that the offsetting mechanism embeds a form of accounting for biodiversity that runs counter to the prevailing dominant anthropocentric approach. Rather than accounting for the biodiversity of a site in terms of the economic benefits it provides to humans, the mechanism accounts for biodiversity in terms of its ecological value. This analysis, therefore, reveals a form of accounting for biodiversity that uses numbers to provide valuations of biodiversity, but these numbers are ecological numbers, not economic numbers. So this is a calculative, and also ecocentric, approach to accounting for, and valuing, biodiversity. Originality/value This paper contributes to the extant literature on accounting for biodiversity by revealing a novel conceptualisation of the reconciliation of economic development and biodiversity conservation, producing an ecologically defensible form of sustainable development. The paper also makes a methodological contribution by showing how Callon’s framing and overflowing metaphor can be used to enable the kind of interdisciplinary engagement needed for researchers to address sustainable development challenges

Financial accounting calculation in relation to nature

PhD ThesisControversies drawn from the main thesis research question – asking what is the relationship between financial accounting calculation and nature – lead to the specification of research sub-questions. Firstly, how does financial accounting calculation communicate and/or construct the reality of humanity’s economic relationship with nature? Secondly, what is the role of financial accounting calculation in building markets for the purpose of addressing specific environmental problems? Thirdly, what kind of ontological relationship exists between financial accounting calculation and nature? These controversies are examined via two empirical case studies, utilising the principles of actor-network theory, and a conceptual discussion that draws from these cases and from literature on financial markets. The first empirical case study seeks to examine how the biodiversity comprising a tropical forest ecosystem in the Kasigau Corridor in Keyna is protected as a result of having its conservation brought into financial accounting calculations by constructing, via processes of objectification and singularisation, a greenhouse gas emissions offset product to sell on the voluntary over-the-counter carbon markets. The second empirical case study seeks to examine the performativity of financial accounting in the construction of markets in tropical forest carbon. The analysis describes and explains the conflicts surrounding the translation of carbon market calculative devices by networks of organisational actors to extract a tradable accounting inscription from the world of tropical forests. A conceptual discussion then places economic markets on a flat ontological landscape with natural systems. This theoretical conception allows for a direct comparison between the roles of financial accounting calculations in markets and that of other forms of calculation and emergent computation in natural systems, finding that they are ontologically equivalent. This then provides a new theoretical frame for considering issues such as pluralism of accountings and accounting for sustainability

Ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity in the production of a blanket bog

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity in efforts to conserve biodiversity. Design/methodology/approach The paper examines a case study of biodiversity conservation efforts to restore a degraded blanket bog habitat. The analysis adopts a social nature perspective, which sees the social and the natural as inseparably intertwined in socio-ecological systems: complexes of relations between (human and non-human) actors, being perpetually produced by fluid interactions. Using a theoretical framework from the geography literature, consisting of four mutually constitutive dimensions of relations – territory, scale, network, and place (TSNP) – the analysis examines various forms of accounting for biodiversity that are centred on this blanket bog. Findings The analysis finds that various forms of ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity have rendered this blanket bog visible and comprehensible in multiple ways, so as to contribute towards making this biodiversity conservation thinkable and possible. Originality/value This paper brings theorising from geography, concerning the social nature perspective and the TSNP framework, into the study of accounting for biodiversity. This has enabled a novel analysis that reveals the productive force of ecology-centred accounting for biodiversity, and the role of such accounting in organising the world so as to produce socio-ecological systems that aid biodiversity conservation. </jats:sec

Making extinction calculable

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in achieving biodiversity conservation and preventing the extinction of species. The Red List is a calculative device that classifies species in terms of their exposure to the risk of extinction. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on theorising in the Social Studies of Finance literature to analyse the Red List in terms of how it frames a space of calculability for species extinction. The analysis then traces the ways that this framing has overflowed, creating conditions for calculative innovations, such that assemblages of humans and calculative devices (i.e. agencements) are constructed with collective capabilities to act to conserve biodiversity and prevent species extinctions. Findings This paper has traced three ways that the Red List frame has overflowed, leading to calculative innovations and the construction of new agencements. The overflow of relations between the quality of “extinction risk”, produced by the Red List, and other qualities, such as location, has created opportunities for conservationists to develop agencements capable of formulating conservation strategies. The overflow of relations between the identity of the “threatened species”, produced by the Red List, and other features of evaluated species, has created opportunities for conservationists to develop agencements capable of impelling participation in conservation efforts. The overflow of ecological relations between species, discarded by the Red List’s hierarchical metrology of extinction risk classifications, has created opportunities for conservationists to develop agencements capable of confronting society with the reality of an extinction crisis. Originality/value The paper contributes to the accounting for biodiversity literature by addressing its fundamental challenge: explaining how accounting can create conditions within society in which biodiversity conservation is made possible. </jats:sec

Framing sustainable development challenges:accounting for SDG-15 in the UK

Purpose: Given the UK is already accounting for its biodiversity under the CBD and Aichi targets, producing and reporting on a comprehensive set of biodiversity indicators, what is the effect of calculating and communicating national biodiversity performance with reference to SDG-15? By studying how SDG-15 has affected the UK’s biodiversity accounting, this paper will shed light on how the SDGs are shaping national accounts of sustainable development.Design/methodology/approach: The multimethod research project commenced with document analysis to frame the development of UK biodiversity indicators in the context of international, national conventions, strategies and policies in the period 2005 and 2016. Themes that emerged emerging from the documents were then followed up a series with semi-structured interviews with key actors involved in the design, production and communication of national biodiversity indicators. The research is expected to include around 20 interviewees of which 18 have been carried out at this stage. These interviews were complemented with attendance at key meetings such as Scottish Biodiversity Strategy Science Support Group, BES/UK Conservation Agencies Symposium.Findings: the UK is currently identifying appropriate sources of data to report against the SDG indicators. Data either doesn’t exist or there is not a universally agreed method to collect and analyse the necessary information. Out of the 12 indicators the UK should report on under SDG 15, only 7 are being reported on, but with only 5 of them actually having an underlying data set and an agreed standard for analysis. This is surprising given that the UK currently reports on 24 indicators to assess national biodiversity under the CBD. The existing framework is largely ignored, leading to the creation of another framework to report on UK biodiversity, which consists of a much narrower set of measures. Whilst SDG 15 indicators do not augment the existing UK biodiversity accounting framework, interviews have highlighted how in the SDGs biodiversity is coming to be seen in a broader context, in which they act to raise political awareness for the issue of biodiversity loss and support more holistic political decision making. Originality/value: This study captures the contemporary emergence of systems and structures of biodiversity accounting practices in response to UN SDGS descibed by Bebbington and Unerman (2018, p. 3) as “the most salient point of departure for understanding and achieving environmental and human development ambitions up to (and no doubt beyond) 2030”. This study provides unique empirical insights into a context in flux