Attached
Environmental degradation and social inequality has continuously threatened the ability of
the future generations to meet their own needs in the pursuit of satisfying the needs of the
present generations. Global warming, routine pollutants, industrial accidents, deforestation
and loss of biodiversity are few such environmental threats that have received heightened
attention of both public and private sectors. Among these, the variability among living
organisms from all sources or biodiversity (Spicer, 2006) and its threats started receiving the
limelight particularly after the Earth Summit in Rio which paved the way for Convention on
Biological Diversity (Balmford et al., 2005). Furthering these developments, at present,
businesses consider biodiversity either as corporate social responsibility or as a part of their
. business strategy. However, the business entities that have direct interaction with the natural
environment tend to incorporate biodiversity management into their mainstream business
' management. Plantations sector provides a prolific example o f such entities that have to
embed biodiversity in corporate decision making on a regular basis. Consequently, the
demand for biodiversity information systems in the spheres o f identifying, recording, and
reporting (i.e. the main functions of accounting) become quite essential in the plantations
?cctor. The changes in business landscape coupled with stewardship towards stakeholders,
have expanded the role o f accounting to provide non-financial information along with
monetary information in managing natural capitals such as biodiversity. Yet, it is little known
how biodiversity can be accounted for in the plantations sector in a systematic manner. This
ongoing exploratory study therefore attempts to demonstrate how biodiversity accounting can
be brought into mainstream accounting in the plantations sector in Sri Lanka.
