The ongoing 6th mass extinction has alerted the accounting community to the need to go beyond accounting for biodiversity. With over 1 million species currently threatened by extinction, the extinction accounting framework has been getting traction with the financial and investment sectors, alerting companies more than ever of the need to account for species as a double material risk. Following current literature in extinction accounting on bee extinction, the thesis focusing on the agrochemical industry in relation to hedgehogs extinction in the UK, the population of which has diminished in over 30% in urban areas and 50% in rural areas since 2000. To examine the implementation of the extinction accounting framework in the agrochemical sector and the hedgehog protection arena, the following research questions were posed:
1. Are the discourses identified in the texts working to ensure the survival of all living beings or is there a need to search for new stories? Which discourses are destructive, predominantly working against the ecosophy? Which discourses are ambivalent can beneficial discourses be found to resonate with the ecosophy?
2. How is the natural world represented and constructed by the agrochemical corporations via multimodal semiosis such as images and videos?
3. What discourses do other stakeholders and organisations such as NGOs, local authorities, hedgehog carers in the hedgehog arena use?
4. How can the extinction accounting framework improve agrochemical accountability in the UK context, in relation to disappearing hedgehogs?
To answer the research questions, the methodology, anchored in social constructionism, theorises that agrochemical companies construct a shadow reality, using Beck’s (1992) application of Plato’s allegory of the cave. The methodology positions accounting practices and reporting as a social construct that is discursively constructed. Therefore, through applying an ecolinguistic analysis of textual, multimodal of two agrochemical corporations and spoken discourse of 32 interviewees spanning a wide range of stakeholders within the hedgehog and agrochemical arena, the thesis examines the discourses against the researcher’s ecosophy. A political theory of animals rights is applied as the ecosophy to argue that for disclosures to be truly emancipatory, they must be anchored in positive political rights awarded to animals.
The findings from the four empirical chapters are compared and contrasted to reveal that agrochemical companies reject the adoption of the extinction accounting framework as they deny the 6th mass extinction and biodiversity loss and do not view hedgehog extinction, or any other species, as a material risk. The findings demonstrate that companies de-legitimise NGOs in the hedgehog and environmental arena. In turn, the findings suggest NGOs do not acknowledge hedgehog rescuers’ knowledge and expertise. In fact, beyond the economic and financial restricting factors faced by NGOs and local councils, their lack of coordination and accountability, coupled with pressures to appear ‘metric’ and ‘scientific’ presents an obstacle to halting hedgehog extinction. Finally, the thesis reveals that hedgehog rescuers, although disparate, are the ones who transmit the plight of hedgehogs.
