Some of the Conventional Accounting Concepts That Are Not in Accordance With the Paradigm of Islamic Accounting

This paper discusses some of the conventional accounting concepts, such as historical cost concept, conservatism concept, matching concept, objectivity concept, stable monetary unit assumption, and going-concern assumption, which are not in accordance with the Islamic accounting paradigm due to their divergence with some verses of the Holy AI-Qur＇an, the Hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him （pbuh）, and the basic of Zakat calculation. This is a conceptual paper describing some of the conventional accounting concepts that are not in accordance with the paradigm of Islamic accounting. The paper concludes that the historical cost concept can be replaced by： current cash equivalent concept, historical cost and current value concepts （market selling price）, current cost concept, historical cost concept in all （except for Zakat purposes） accounting calculations, current valuation concept, and fair value concept. Conservatism concept must be eliminated if historical cost concept is not used anymore. Matching concept can be replaced by asset-liability approach concept. Objectivity concept can be replaced by Zakat accountability concept. Stability of the monetary unit assumption can be replaced by gold or silver measurement, or Dirham currency, and going-concern assumption must be eliminated.     

Demographic pressure and natural resources conservation

A field survey was carried out in the villages of Nlobesse'e at the Western periphery of the Dja Biosphere Reserve, South Cameroon, to evaluate the various effects that the increase in the local populations exert on the conservation of the natural resources of the reserve. Survey results show that the population was increasing rapidly at 40.00/00 per annum, with 61.54% of the total inhabitants originating from other parts of the country. Despite the rapid population growth, the population of the Kaka and Baka ethnic groups also known as the pigmies who have been noted by ECOFAC (Ecosystème Forestière d'Afrique Centrale) for having a marked negative impact on the conservation of the natural resources (because they depend mostly on the natural resources of the reserve for their livelihood and practice very little or no agriculture) were decreasing at a rate of 6.2%. Probably they sought better hunting, gathering and collecting conditions elsewhere in the reserve. Animal proteins originating from the reserve provide most of the animal proteins consumed by the households and the entire population of Nlobesse'e demands 44.4 kg of “bush meat” per day. It was also noted that the local population practiced very little agriculture in the reserve. Hunting and fishing, activities that have been noted for having a negative influence on the conservation of biodiversity contributed 15.2% and 11.2%, respectively, of the total income of the households. Other sources of income included: wages earned from the agro-plantation that contributed 40.3%, farming 24.2%, commerce 3% and others 4.58%. Merchant middlemen also referred to as “buyam sellam” and individuals with no commercial interest were the two main relay agents responsible for transporting natural resources out of Nlobesse'e. It would have been expected that the increasing population combined to the high incidence of poverty in the region (per capita income of 225 FCFA or $0.3 per day) would have exerted a high sustainability pressure on the conservation of reserve resources. However, this was not the case because of an agro-plantation in the area that provided the local population with the necessary income to buy foodstuff and other needed resources from far away areas. To maintain this trend, it is recommended that other sources of income such as the creation of small-scale enterprises and ecotourism should be encouraged in and around biospheres reserves.