BiodiversityNews

Biodiversity as a source of accountability

Hosted by the AgroParisTech Foundation, the Ecological Accounting Chair – of which Sienna IM is a patron – stands out for its approach based on the «strong sustainability» of ecosystems, as explained by Sienna IM

“Ecological accounting means being accountable with respect to biodiversity, and this is what we call accountability”. For Alexandre Rambaud and his colleague Clément Feger, both researchers and lecturers at AgroParisTech, the vision of the Ecological Accounting Chair they lead is based on “strong sustainability”, i.e. the idea that nature is a source of responsibilities, making populations and public or private actors who exploit it accountable. Their work focuses on indicators of the “good ecological status” of natural environments, as the basis for their thinking.

Exploiting biodiversity generates an “ecological debt”

This “strong sustainability” is opposed to the idea that nature is an active and that it can be substituted for capital. «For us, nature is a debt that must be repaid,”  says Alexandre Rambaud. In other words, the exploitation of an ecosystem implies that it will have to be restored according to very precise scientific objectives. To ensure that this “ecological debt” is indeed repaid by the organizations that make use of it, the Chair advocates a committed, hands-on approach. “We set ecological objectives, look at the actions to be taken to improve ecosystems and the costs required to implement them,” explains Clément Féger, adding that coordination of local players is essential. This thinking has given rise to the CARE model – for Comprehensive Accounting in Respect of Ecology – enabling a re – reading of the accounts of a company committed to preserving ecosystems. To illustrate this,[…] To read the full article, click on the link below.

 

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