Editorial: Accounting and ConservationTo Live in Harmony with Nature, We Must Organise Nature

Abstract

Humanity aspires to live in harmony with nature. The difficult question is: how can such harmony be achieved? In the Anthropocene, nature is socio-ecological systems. This changes how we can think about the role played by accounting in achieving some kind of harmonious co-existence with nature. It is not just about tracking the deleterious impacts of one domain (i.e. human society) upon another domain (i.e. nature). Rather, accounting becomes a vital force in the organising of socio-ecological systems. Nature conservation can be understood to be the work of organising socio-ecological systems with the aim of protecting and sustaining ecological processes and biological diversity. The papers in this SEAJ special issue on Accounting and Conservation explore how all manner of accounting practices facilitate the organisational work involved in conserving the socio-ecological systems comprising nature on Earth.