Case study: Kakadu: mining versus intangible values, from textbook, Case study 14.2, p.407-408 - Essay Example

There are also over 280 bird species. Kakadu is also rich in Uranium deposits found in different sites. Kakadu also possesses intangible assets such as its recognition as a vital wetland that is of international significance. Finally, Kakadu possesses various heritage assets such as the aboriginal cultural sites that have cave paintings and rock carvings, as well as various archaeological sites. The park’s ecosystem can also be classed as a mixed asset since it is also a heritage asset. Assets, according to the conceptual framework definition, are future economic benefits that are controlled by the entity resulting from past events or transactions (Rankin et al, 2012).

It must be probable that future economic benefits will eventuate, and it must have a cost or other value that is reliably measurable. One asset that passes this definition is the Uranium deposits in the park. The mineral deposits have future economic benefits since the uranium is of high quality and fetches a premium price on the market. The price of Uranium is bound to increase as the world shifts to clean energy and supplies in other major producers begin to dwindle. Finally, the cost of Uranium is easily quantifiable since the costs are readily available on the world market and work on quantification and quality checks have shown that the Uranium present portends a great investment.

Another asset that would pass the definition is the Aboriginal cultural sites since Australian tourist levels have been raising in the last couple of years, with aboriginal culture being of great interest to both foreign and domestic tourists. An asset is recognized in the conceptual framework when it is probable that future economic benefits are to flow to the entity, in addition, to the asset having a value or the cost that can be reliably measured (Rankin et al, 2012). According to this definition, the Uranium deposits pass the asset recognition test.

This is because they have a cost that can be financially valued unlike the aboriginal cultural sites, which can be classed as “priceless”. However, the aboriginal heritage sites could also pass the test because the future economic benefits will flow to the entity with increased tourist numbers. However, as stated, they cannot be valued with certainty. The UN body UNESCO describes heritage sites as exceptional places with outstanding universal value that belongs to all the people around the world, irrespective of which location or territory of origin (Rankin et al, 2012).

Kakadu national park is an ethnological and archaeological reserve that has been lived in for more than forty thousand years. The rock carvings, cave paintings, and archaeological sites act as a record of the way of life, as well as skills, of the park’s inhabitants. These people range from the pre-historic hunters and gatherers to the present-day aborigines who still live there. It is also an example of unique and complex ecosystems such as tidal flats, plateaus, lowlands, and floodplains, which provide a habitat for numerous endemic or rare species of plants and animals like water pythons.

The inability to reliably value heritage and intangible assets greatly disadvantages their preservation. First, financial information needs regarding these assets is unreliable and