Making Environmental Accounting Work: Case of the Zimbabwe Mining Industry

Abstract

The research sought to find out how environmental accounting can work in Zimbabwean Mining Companies. Descriptive research design was used and mixture of qualitative and quantitative data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. Stratified purposeful sampling of 52 respondents was made up of 16 Mining Companies' executives which are dominant companies in mining gold, nickel, asbestos, coal, copper and chromite, 20 government organisations representatives and 16 mining communities' heads (8 Chiefs and 8 Headmen) were done. Community heads were interviewed and questionnaires were sent to Mining Companies' executives and government organisations representatives who were also interviewed two months after. The research reveals that government is not doing enough in fostering the implementation of environmental accounting in Zimbabwe. There is no commitment of enough resources by the government towards adoption of environmental accounting. The mining sector has been politicized, making it difficult to enforce environmental laws in this sector whilst on the other hand there are no effective laws and policies that regulate environmental accounting issues. The core existences of economic instability and political upheavals in the nation have forced firms to concentrate on their continued economic existence, doing almost nothing on environmental accounting. It was also noted that there is no proper monitoring and controlling of mining activities by law enforcers, leaving the natural environment subjected to unsustainable mining activities. There are no environmental accounting guidelines. The research recommended that government organisations monitor and control mining activities independent of politics and commit both human and financial resources towards researching on how best environmental accounting can be implemented.

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