Accounting for Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Species: Impacts, Dependencies, and the State of Nature

Accounting for Biodiversity, Ecosystems, and Species: Impacts, Dependencies, and the State of Nature

📢 Call for Papers | Special Issue

JOURNAL NAME: Meditari Accountancy Research

PUBLISHER: Emerald Publishing

SUBMISSION OPENS: 01 October 2026

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 30 November 2026

ABOUT THIS SPECIAL ISSUE

Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse are among the greatest challenges of our time. Investors are recognising nature risk in their portfolios, and nature-related issues are increasingly acknowledged as material to the future financial prospects of businesses and financial institutions. As a result, a significant increase in the quantity and quality of nature and biodiversity information is required urgently to satisfy the decision-making needs of investors and other stakeholders.

Understanding the relationship between organisations, biodiversity, and ecosystems is a crucial issue for addressing biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse. This relationship is triadic — composed of three main building blocks: impacts, dependencies, and the state of nature.

Accounting for impacts implies understanding the direct and indirect, positive and negative effects an organisation has on five main impact drivers: over-exploitation of natural resources, pollution, introduction of invasive alien species, sea/land use change, and contribution to climate change.

Accounting for dependencies means understanding which ecosystem services an organisation relies on — such as raw materials, fertile land, and clean air — and what would happen if those services deteriorated or ceased to exist.

Accounting for the state of nature implies measuring the health and value of ecosystems and species, including ecosystem extent, habitat fragmentation, and species count.

This special issue invites contributions that push the boundaries of accounting scholarship to engage with the complexities of biodiversity, ecosystems, and species. Normative, interpretive, critical, qualitative, interventionist, and mixed methods research are all welcome. Interdisciplinary research that incorporates knowledge from biology, agroecology, conservation science, and genetics is especially encouraged.

SCOPE & THEME AREAS

We invite submissions addressing (but not limited to) the following themes:

1. Accounting for the value(s) of biodiversity and ecosystems — How can accounting frameworks capture the multiple dimensions of biodiversity and ecosystem value?

2. Management control systems — Designing and applying control systems to account for impacts, dependencies, and the state of nature.

3. Reporting on dependencies and state of nature — How are organisations reporting on their nature dependencies and the condition of ecosystems they interact with?

4. Accounting for dependencies and nature-related risks — How should organisations identify, measure, and disclose nature-related financial and operational risks?

5. Materiality and biodiversity — Consequences of applying different types of materiality (impact, financial, double) on biodiversity and ecosystem accounting.

6. Linkages between environmental accounting and biodiversity accounting — How do existing environmental accounting frameworks connect with emerging biodiversity and ecosystem accounting approaches?

7. Adoption of tools, frameworks, and standards — Consequences of adopting biodiversity and ecosystem accounting tools, frameworks, and standards for organisations and for nature itself.

8. Extinction accounting and dependencies — Links between the extinction accounting framework and accounting for organisational dependencies on nature.

9. Interdisciplinary knowledge exchange — The role of collaboration between accountants and natural scientists in measuring and reporting bio-physical elements.

10. Species accounting — Accounting for flora and fauna, including methodological and ethical dimensions.

GUEST EDITORS

Giacomo Pigatto Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy ✉️ giacomo.pigatto@santannapisa.it

Jill Atkins Cardiff University, UK ✉️ AtkinsJ10@cardiff.ac.uk

Lino Cinquini Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy ✉️ lino.cinquini@santannapisa.it

John Dumay Macquarie University, Australia ✉️ john.dumay@mq.edu.au

Andrea Tenucci Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy ✉️ andrea.tenucci@santannapisa.it

KEY DEADLINES & DATES

SPECIAL ISSUE WORKSHOPS

Two workshops linked to this special issue will be held in 2026 to help authors develop their manuscripts:

• EEEAGER Workshop — Cardiff, 29 June – 01 July 2026

• Meditari Accountancy Research Conference — Leeds, September 2026

Please note: Presentation at the workshop is not a prerequisite for submission, nor does it guarantee acceptance into the special issue.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

How to submit: Manuscripts must be submitted via ScholarOne Manuscripts, strictly following the journal's author guidelines.

Selecting the special issue: At the appropriate submission step, authors must select the special issue title from the drop-down menu in response to "Please select the issue you are submitting to."

Eligibility: Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication elsewhere while under review.

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