Abstract

Despite the fact that environmental accounting has received reasonable acceptance by the business, professional and academic community in South America for more than 30 years, its achievements remain tied to a modern project that, in a certain sense, follows an economistic and colonial approach. Currently, the region is facing deep socio-environmental conflicts due to the extractivist model that has reprimarized the economies of most South American countries. In this context, the purpose of sustainable development becomes contradictory not only with the natural balance but also with the self-determination and subsistence of indigenous and hybrid cultures that emerged after colonization. This chapter presents a panoramic outlook of the evolution of socio-environmental accounting research in South America, establishing the need of an accounting of socio-environmental conflicts that gives account of the social and natural diversity of this region from a decolonial perspective.