“As bad as bad can be”: accounting for species extinction in the North Pacific

McBride, Karen; Sagitova, Roza; Cam, Olga

doi:10.1108/aaaj-06-2022-5884

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 76 publications

(184 reference statements)

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“…McBride et al ’s (2023) paper on the accounts of the Russian American Company between 1840 and 1863 explores an early form of extinction accounting, and specifically an early form of species accounting. Motivated by financial risk management considerations for preserving species and biodiversity [10] rather than any moral or ethical intention, the company developed strategies for protecting the populations of fur seals and fur otters in order to prevent their local extinction, so as to protect the fur trade's future cash flows.…”

Section: The Papers In This Special Issue: Broadening the Agenda For ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In terms of motivation underlying these early forms of environmental and/or ecological accounting, the driving force behind attempts to preserve the environment and nature is to ensure a steady and healthy flow of natural capital for the industry concerned: trees for the Chinese forestry industry (Wang and Hu, 2023); fish stocks for the fisheries industry (Quinn et al. , 2023); animals for the fur trade industry (McBride et al. , 2023).…”

Section: Extending the Definition Of Environmental And Ecological Acc...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They all provide interdisciplinary insights into environmental and ecological accounting, with the papers integrating environmental and ecological accounting, reporting and recording with a whole range of diverse disciplines including hydrogeology, economic anthropology, historiography, infographics and aesthetics. In terms of motivation underlying these early forms of environmental and/or ecological accounting, the driving force behind attempts to preserve the environment and nature is to ensure a steady and healthy flow of natural capital for the industry concerned: trees for the Chinese forestry industry (Wang and Hu, 2023); fish stocks for the fisheries industry (Quinn et al, 2023); animals for the fur trade industry (McBride et al, 2023). In the case of the amelioration of air and water (Bigoni et al, 2022) the intention is to improve societal health and welfare, with an aim of growing the population, again deriving from a recognition that humans could not thrive where groundwater and air were contaminated.…”

Section: Extending the Definition Of Environmental And Ecological Acc...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the historical roots of environmental and ecological accounting from the dawn of human consciousness

Atkins,

Doni,

McBride

et al. 2023

AAAJ

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PurposeThis paper seeks to broaden the agenda for environmental and ecological accounting research across several dimensions, extending the form of accounting in this field by encouraging research into its historical roots and developing a definition of accounting that can address the severe environmental and ecological challenges of the 21st century.Design/methodology/approachThe authors explored environmental and ecological accounts from the dawn of human consciousness across a wide variety of media and in a broad range of forms. This theoretical approach reacts to the cold capitalist commodification of nature inherent in much environmental accounting practice, which documents, values and records usage of natural capital with little attempt to address depletion and loss.FindingsBy analysing the earliest ecological and environmental “accounts” recorded by humans at the dawn of human consciousness, and considering a wide array of subsequent accounts, the authors demonstrate that rather than being a secondary, relatively recent development emerging from financial accounting and reporting, environmental and ecological accounting predated financial accounting by tens of thousands of years. This research also provides a wealth of perspectives on diversity, not only in forms of account but also in the diversity of accountants, as well as the broadness of the stakeholders to whom and to which the accounts are rendered.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper can be placed at the intersection of accounting history, the alternative, interdisciplinary and critical accounts literature, and environmental and ecological accounting research.Practical implicationsPractically, the authors can draw ideas and inspiration from the historical forms and content of ecological and environmental account that can inform new forms of and approaches to accounting.Social implicationsThere are social implications including the diversity of accounts and accountants derived from studying historical ecological and environmental accounts from the dawn of human consciousness especially in the broadening out of the authors' understanding of the origins and cultural roots of accounting.Originality/valueThis study concludes with a new definition of accounting, fit for purpose in the 21st century, that integrates ecological, environmental concerns and is emancipatory, aiming to restore nature, revive biodiversity, conserve species and enhance ecosystems.

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Section: The Papers In This Special Issue: Broadening the Agenda For ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Extending the Definition Of Environmental And Ecological Acc...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Extending the Definition Of Environmental And Ecological Acc...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Exploring the historical roots of environmental and ecological accounting from the dawn of human consciousness

Atkins,

Doni,

McBride

et al. 2023

AAAJ

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Historical studies of accounting for biodiversity include an examination of how the nineteenth-century artist, textile designer and writer William Morris engaged in attempts to preserve 'nature' through campaigns for the maintenance and extension of commons and other open spaces (Atkins and Thomson, 2014). Although most research using the concept of extinction accounting considers the present and near future, historical studies are beginning to emerge, one of which (McBride et al, 2023) uses the annual reports of a nineteenth-century Russian company hunting for furs in Siberia and Alaska to examine how the company reported on its initiatives for addressing the risk of species depletion and even extinction, thus holding itself accountable for maintaining species populations. Accounting for biodiversity and extinction accounting come together in the study by Atkins and Maroun (2020) of the eighteenth-century naturalist Gilbert White and how he used his 'nature diaries' to record the populations of wildlife around his home in Hampshire, thus being able to monitor both the diversity of species and their growth and decline.…”

Section: Extractive Industriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting and the exploitation of the natural world: Studies from a historical perspective

Jack,

Napier

2023

Accounting History

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This article introduces the Special Issue of Accounting History on the topic of accounting and the exploitation of the natural world. After exploring the ambivalent nature of the word ‘exploitation’, with both positive and negative senses, the article reviews some earlier contributions to the historical accounting research literature relevant to the Special Issue. The four substantive research papers in the Special Issue are discussed and put into broader contexts, and the article identifies some potentially fruitful avenues for further research into how accounting has been implicated in the exploitation of the natural world in the past. The article concludes with brief tributes to two recently deceased accounting academics, Professor Tom Schneider and Professor Mike Jones, whose contributions to the Special Issue and to stimulating research into accounting for biodiversity, respectively, are acknowledged.

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Business education and its paradoxes: Linking business and biodiversity through critical pedagogy curriculum

Kopnina,

Hughes,

Zhang

et al. 2024

British Educational Res J

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The Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, launched during the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in December 2022, encourages governments, companies and investors to publish data on their nature‐related risks, dependencies and impacts. These disclosures are intended to drive businesses to recognise, manage and mitigate their reliance on ecosystem goods and services. However, there is a ‘biodiversity blind spot’ that is evident for most organisations and business schools. Business education rarely addresses the root causes of biodiversity loss, such as the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. As the dominant positioning of Education for Sustainable Development Goals (ESDG) presents biodiversity in anthropocentric instrumental terms inadequate for addressing ecosystem decline, we posit that a more progressive and transformative ecocentric education through ecopedagogy and ecoliteracy is needed. Both approaches include the development of critical thinking about degrowth, the circular economy and conventional stakeholder theory to include non‐human stakeholders. Using comparative case studies from Northumbria University, the University of Hong Kong and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, we illustrate how business education can be transformed to address biodiversity loss, providing theoretical guidance and practical recommendations to academic practitioners and future business leaders.

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“As bad as bad can be”: accounting for species extinction in the North Pacific

Cited by 7 publications

References 76 publications

Exploring the historical roots of environmental and ecological accounting from the dawn of human consciousness

Exploring the historical roots of environmental and ecological accounting from the dawn of human consciousness

Accounting and the exploitation of the natural world: Studies from a historical perspective

Business education and its paradoxes: Linking business and biodiversity through critical pedagogy curriculum

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