With the number of extreme wildfires worldwide predicted to increase by 2030, fire management is a hot topic and the world is watching how Australia does it.
Rangers, traditional owners and land corporations shared their experiences and expertise with government and climate fund representatives from countries including Zambia and Brazil, and the UN-backed Green Climate Fund at a forum in Darwin this week.
Francis Mpampi from the Zimbabwean government said he was interested in how Indigenous groups have been able to scale fire management across the vast savannah of northern Australia.
“We’re interested in how teams here have used community engagement,” Mpampi said.
“We want the community to realise the benefit of being engaged in basic fire safety.”
Since 2012, fire management has been supported by federal government initiatives that issue credits for carbon sequestration. Credits are also issued for the greenhouse gases that would have taken place if management practices had not been put in place.
It’s a system that has proved useful for organisations and Aboriginal land corporations across northern Australia to fund cultural practices.
In 2020, Olkola Aboriginal Corporation in Queensland earned more than $3 million (US$2.02 million) in carbon credit units which they used to fund tourism and bring people back onto country.
But it also starts with the burn: a process that combines satellite mapping and a lot of helicopter flights with cultural knowledge on when, where and how to set the savannah alight, itself the culmination of generations of observing and understanding the surrounding landscape.
This year, the annual North Australia Savanna Fire Forum came in the wake of a six-month review into how carbon credits are issued in Australia, released in January. Representatives from the federal government attended the forum, but did not specifically answer questions about the review.
It was important for Indigenous people to have a seat at the table when it comes to rapidly-changing carbon credit policies, said Cissy Gore-Birch, who co-chairs the Indigenous Carbon Industry Network.
“These savannah fire management carbon projects create amazing benefits, by getting people back on country, enabling traditional owners to be able to make their own decisions and choose what we want to do on country,” Gore-Birch said.
“We all have a responsibility to manage country.”
