Natural Capital Accounting: revisiting the elephant in the boardroom

This research is motivated by a growing belief that Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) can assist organisations in increasing their stewardship over the ecological elements they effect and in some cases control. It follows on from previous CIMA Research , Accounting for Natural Capital: The Elephant in the Boardroom, which presented an overview of potential benefits of using NCA , by examining the practices and experiences of Forestry Enterprises England. The study found that accountants seeking to employ the NCA tool within their organisations will be likely to face significant challenges and issues. They will need to understand which data is relevant and how it can be collected ,analysed and monetised and will also require specialised knowledge of the local ecology. The benefits derived from NCA may reside in the learning that develops as a result of undertaking the process as well as from producing a completed set of natural capital accounts.