Accounting for biodiversity and ecosystems

"Today, companies play a central role in the dynamics of ecosystem degradation, and are therefore increasingly called upon to contribute to their protection. How, then, can we improve the way in which companies take account of biodiversity issues, and involve them in localized ecosystem management? In addition, while conservation science and ecology offer a growing number of indicators and data for assessing biodiversity in its many forms, how can we structure this information so that it provides a basis for strategic and collective action, and for dialogue between stakeholders?

An ecological accounting approach, as a management science discipline, enables us to address these issues of structuring ecological indicators and information systems, the responsibilities of the various players who interact with ecosystems, and the associated forms of accountability.

The field of ecological accounting and its recent developments on biodiversity aim to transform the accounting systems traditionally used by companies to better take into account the value of natural capital (biodiversity, ecosystems), and thus anchor it at the heart of management processes at different levels of corporate management. Innovation in ecological accounting also exists on other perimeters (national, ecosystem scale) and can thus help to create articulations at different scales of ecosystem governance.

Interactive lectures are punctuated by exercises of varying length, putting students in an active position:

- reading and lively discussion of scientific articles in the field ;

- game for comparative analysis of natural capital accounting tools and models, etc.

-A practical case study of ecosystem accounting approaches.

"At the end of the module, students will be able to identify and compare various accounting models and tools applied to biodiversity at corporate, ecosystem management and national levels. They will be able to use the main concepts of the field of social and environmental accounting, as well as the main modes of reasoning of some of the tools and models proposed, to analyze the challenges of structuring information (ecological, economic, social, etc.) for the ecological management of firms and ecosystems.

The learning objectives are as follows:

- Enumerate and define the main concepts and recall the theoretical specificities of social and environmental accounting approaches, highlighting the particular elements they bring to bear on ecological issues.

- Be able to point out several structuring issues and distinguish the currents that drive the field.

- Be able to name and compare different approaches, models and tools for biodiversity accounting in different sectors (business, government).

- Explain the major issues involved in ecosystem-based accounting approaches and how they complement accounting developed at other scales.

- Know how to use the "ecological contribution accounts" model to structure information for the collective management of an ecosystem, based on a fictitious case."

No prior knowledge of accounting in the strict sense of the term is necessary to take this module.

100% continuous assessment