Account(ing)/(ability): Democratising the Environmental Impact Assessment in Mongolian Mining

<p>This study examines sustainable development in practice, particularly in the context of mining and environmental management in a less developed country (LDC). It argues for sustainable and participatory mining in LDCs, such as Mongolia, by encouraging democratisation of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. The EIA, a major tool of environmental management, addresses the negative environmental and social impacts of development projects, such as mining, and has the capacity to mitigate such impacts by incorporating EIA recommendations into business practice. To ensure the inclusion of affected communities in the EIA process, public participation in EIAs is legislated in many countries. This is particularly important for mineral-rich LDCs, as they have experienced growing conflict among mining companies, local communities, and government authorities, due to a lack of dialogue among mining constituents and a lack of effective public policy and public engagement in the promotion of socially and environmentally accountable mining. This study applies Brown's (2009) dialogic accounting framework in the exploration and evaluation of current EIA practices. By using Mongolian EIA practices for illustrative purposes, this study seeks to contribute to debate in EIA and SEA literature, and to support calls for more participatory EIAs that can embed sustainable development into business practice. Furthermore, the current and potential engagement of NGOs in the EIAs of Mongolia is examined in order to explore their potential to foster dialogic accounting.</p>

Account(ing)/(ability): Democratising the Environmental Impact Assessment in Mongolian Mining

<p>This study examines sustainable development in practice, particularly in the context of mining and environmental management in a less developed country (LDC). It argues for sustainable and participatory mining in LDCs, such as Mongolia, by encouraging democratisation of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. The EIA, a major tool of environmental management, addresses the negative environmental and social impacts of development projects, such as mining, and has the capacity to mitigate such impacts by incorporating EIA recommendations into business practice. To ensure the inclusion of affected communities in the EIA process, public participation in EIAs is legislated in many countries. This is particularly important for mineral-rich LDCs, as they have experienced growing conflict among mining companies, local communities, and government authorities, due to a lack of dialogue among mining constituents and a lack of effective public policy and public engagement in the promotion of socially and environmentally accountable mining. This study applies Brown's (2009) dialogic accounting framework in the exploration and evaluation of current EIA practices. By using Mongolian EIA practices for illustrative purposes, this study seeks to contribute to debate in EIA and SEA literature, and to support calls for more participatory EIAs that can embed sustainable development into business practice. Furthermore, the current and potential engagement of NGOs in the EIAs of Mongolia is examined in order to explore their potential to foster dialogic accounting.</p>

Research on Social and Environmental Accounting: Current Trends and Future Approaches

Climate change has attracted public awareness in recent years, which, in turn, has created potential opportunities and concerns for business. This paper examines the manner in which empirical studies on social and environmental accounting (SEA) disclosures have contributed to the existing knowledge. It combines theoretical and practical approaches to SEA to provide researchers with creative and holistic access to the knowledge. The study finds the literature on SEA to be far-reaching, flourishing, and employing exciting and diverse statistical methodologies to measure relevant disclosures. It goes on to analyze the theories, motivations, prior literature, and methodologies employed in international SEA literature. The present study contributes to the crafting of a systematic overview of the literature on SEA and opens up potential avenues for research in this discipline by combining current trends in theoretical and practical approaches to SEA research.

On finding of Monocorophium insidiosum Crawford, 1937 (Amphipoda, Corophiidae) in the coastal waters of Crimea (Black Sea), a new species for this region

An illustrated description of morphology of Monocorophium insidiosum Crawford, 1937 from the Crimean coastal waters is given. In this work, 744 specimens from different locations and substrates of the Crimean coastal waters have been analyzed. The main specific parameters of species from the Crimean coastal waters are as follows: rostrum of males is about one half of first article of antenna I length, dactylus of gnathopod II is equipped with 2–4 additional spines along the inner side (both for males and females). Variability is observed in parameters of the following parts: first article of antenna I peduncle, fourth article of antenna II peduncle, inner side of gnathopod II dactylus, and outer sides of the outer and inner rami of uropod II. Morphological parameters of specimens from the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea (literature data), and the North America coast (Vancouver area, literature data) have been compared. Specimens from the Black Sea are morphologically similar, but have some differences from the North American ones. In particular, first article of antenna I peduncle of specimens from the North America have conical process (specimens from the Black Sea have rounded process); fifth article of antenna II peduncle is with proximal medial tooth (specimens from the Black Sea are without proximal medial tooth); and outer ramus of uropod II has medial spine (Mediterranean specimens are without such a spine). These differences should be taken into account when carrying out hydrobiological research.