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Bringing tropical forest biodiversity conservation into financial accounting calculation

Author

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  • Thomas Cuckston

Abstract

Purpose - This paper seeks to examine how the biodiversity comprising a tropical forest ecosystem is being protected as a result of having its conservation brought into financial accounting calculations by constructing a greenhouse gas emissions offset product to sell on the voluntary over‐the‐counter carbon markets. Design/methodology/approach - The research examines a single embedded case study of a biodiversity conservation project in Kenya. The resulting discussion builds upon the existing accounting and organisation studies literature regarding the construction of markets. Findings - Whilst the case examined does successfully bring tropical forest biodiversity conservation into the financial accounting calculations of the sellers and buyers of the offset product, via processes of objectification and singularisation, there are considerable accounting obstacles to constructing a calculative mechanism capable of achieving this on a global scale to facilitate financing of the conservation of all the world's remaining tropical forest biodiversity. Originality/value - The paper contributes to the debate on accounting for biodiversity by examining market construction as a theoretical framework for turning the loss/conservation of biodiversity from an externality into an entity that is taken into account in organisations' calculations of profit and loss.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Cuckston, 2013. "Bringing tropical forest biodiversity conservation into financial accounting calculation," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(5), pages 688-714, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:aaajpp:v:26:y:2013:i:5:p:688-714
    DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-02-2013-1231
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Delphine Gibassier & Karen Maas & Stefan Schaltegger, 2019. "Special issue of business, strategy, and the environment call for papers business, society, biodiversity, and natural capital deadline June 30, 2020 (see details of conference/workshop at the end of t," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 921-924, July.
    2. Cuckston, Thomas, 2018. "Creating financial value for tropical forests by disentangling people from nature," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 219-234.
    3. Madlen Sobkowiak, 2023. "The making of imperfect indicators for biodiversity: A case study of UK biodiversity performance measurement," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 336-352, January.
    4. Torelli, Riccardo & Balluchi, Federica, 2020. "Business Legitimacy, Agricultural Biodiversity and Environmental Ethics: Insights from Sustainable Bakeries," OSF Preprints sxzjf, Center for Open Science.
    5. Gerged, Ali Meftah & Almontaser, Tariq, 2021. "Corporate adoption of SDG reporting in a non-enabling institutional environment: Insights from Libyan oil industries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    6. Lee Roberts & Abeer Hassan & Ahmed Elamer & Monomita Nandy, 2021. "Biodiversity and extinction accounting for sustainable development: A systematic literature review and future research directions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 705-720, January.
    7. Olivier Boiral, 2016. "Accounting for the Unaccountable: Biodiversity Reporting and Impression Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(4), pages 751-768, June.
    8. Clément Feger & Laurent Mermet, 2017. "A blueprint towards accounting for the management of ecosystems," Post-Print hal-01930913, HAL.
    9. Urquía-Grande, Elena & Cano-Montero, Elisa I. & Pérez-Estébanez, Raquel & Chamizo-González, Julián, 2018. "Agriculture, nutrition and economics through training: A virtuous cycle in rural Ethiopia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 707-716.
    10. Haque, Faizul & Jones, Michael John, 2020. "European firms’ corporate biodiversity disclosures and board gender diversity from 2002 to 2016," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    11. C. Feger & Laurent Mermet, 2021. "Advances in accounting for biodiversity and ecosystems: a typology focusing upon the environmental results imperative [Innovations comptables pour la biodiversité et les écosystèmes : une typologie," Post-Print hal-02549016, HAL.
    12. Jan Bebbington & Tom Cuckston & C. Feger, 2021. "Biodiversity," Post-Print hal-03746729, HAL.

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