22 Oct 2024, By Rebecca Heard, Manager of Corporate Partnerships and Digital Solutions

Savanna burning fire management: protecting country, culture, and community

Our Manager of Corporate Partnerships and Digital Solutions, Rebecca Heard, recently returned from a trip to Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, where Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (ALFA) supports local Aboriginal ranger groups to operate savanna fire management projects. Visiting project land first-hand is a special experience and truly emphasises the importance of carbon finance in providing tangible benefits to the community and the environment right here in Australia.

Rebecca reflects on her time on Arnhem Land, explains the savanna burning method and the importance of ALFA’s work.

Exploring ALFA’s impact

As our small plane flew across Kakadu National Park into West Arnhem Land, I was in awe at the breathtaking landscape below. It’s difficult to convey how vast the area covered by ALFA’s five projects truly is, the WALFA project in western Arnhem Land alone spans 28,000 km2. Savanna woodlands, transition into sandstone escarpments, while rivers wind through vast floodplains, each element reflecting the stories, knowledge and resilience of its Traditional Owners.

ALFA is an entirely Aboriginal-owned, not-for-profit carbon business. It supports Aboriginal Traditional Owners and rangers to utilise customary fire knowledge, together with contemporary technology, to accomplish highly sophisticated fire management across an area of over 86,000 km2.

I landed at the bush airstrip, where I was welcomed by Jen and Dean, ALFA’s CEO and Chair of Warddeken Land Management Limited, and driven to Kabulwarnamyo, one of three homeland ranger bases within the Warddeken Indigenous Protected Area (IPA). We gathered in a large central tent surrounded by gum trees, where we met the 18 Aboriginal directors of ALFA’s board, representing Traditional Owners from within the fire management projects. They explained how fire management practices are implemented and the critical role of carbon finance in enabling Traditional Owners to reconnect with country. One director, Conrad, from Warddeken IPA, shared how the programs, have allowed landowners to make a sustainable living on country for the first time.

How does carbon finance support ALFA projects?

When TEM customers support ALFA’s projects, it not only helps avoid carbon emissions, but also supports a range of benefits to landowners. The projects provide employment and training opportunities for local rangers while supporting Aboriginal people in returning to, remaining on and managing their country.

Key impacts and benefits of the ALFA projects include:

  • Millions of dollars annually reinvested in local Aboriginal organisations and their communities
  • The employment of over 300 Aboriginal rangers
  • Natural and cultural assets across 86,000 square kilometres protected from large scale wildfires
  • Over 6 million tonnes of carbon emissions avoided since 2015

Communities are supported in the preservation and transfer of knowledge, the maintenance of Aboriginal languages and the wellbeing of traditional custodians. 

What is the savanna burning method?

For thousands of years, Aboriginal people have used traditional fire burning techniques to manage the land, reducing intense wildfires which can occur late in the dry season. Without careful management before the severe fire weather conditions of the late dry season, wildfires can become out of control, emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases, and destroying precious animal habitat and sacred Aboriginal sites.

By burning strategically early in the dry season, fires burn slow and cool which makes them easy to control, while still clearing flammable savanna debris ahead of late dry season.

Using both aerial burning (incendiary pellets dropped from helicopters) and ground burning, Traditional Owners and rangers burn strategically, adding to natural breaks such as moist ground along creeks, cliff lines and tracks to create unburned ‘compartments’ surrounded by burned breaks.

Research from the West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement project demonstrated that reintroducing traditional burning methods significantly reduced late-season fires and greenhouse gas emissions. This led to the creation of the Savanna Burning Methodology, allowing projects to generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) by reducing emissions through strategic fire management. Projects must adhere to strict rules for planning burns, monitoring, record-keeping, and reporting.

These early dry-season burns reduce the risk of late-season wildfires, minimise emissions, protect local flora and fauna, safeguard communities and infrastructure, and preserve sacred sites and rock art galleries.

Protecting culture and empowering intergenerational learning

Often, asset protection burns are the first step in an early season burn program to ensure sites such as sacred rock art, schools, billabongs and homes are protected.

I had the privilege of visiting several of these rock art galleries, as Warddeken IPA, represents one of the most extensive and significant collections of rock art in the world. Rangers and landowners actively manage, survey and document new sites each year, discovering over 86 in 2022 alone. Remnants of previous fuel reduction burns were visible around the galleries, helping to protect the art from wildfires. Dean emphasised the importance of rock galleries, in intergenerational learning, as they convey knowledge, stories and lore.

As my visit came to an end, we drove back to Darwin through Arnhem Land, stopping at the Nawarddeken Academy School in Manmoyi, one of three independent schools originally established by Warddeken Land Management using carbon finance from ALFA ACCUs. The school offers a unique model of community driven education on country, where students learn from a culturally relevant curriculum integrating technology in an authentic way.

It is clear to see that the combination of traditional fire management and carbon finance is delivering long-lasting benefits – protecting the environment, empowering local communities, and ensuring that future generations can continue to care for their country. ALFA’s work is a powerful reminder of the deep connection between land, culture, and sustainability.

We are currently accepting expressions of interest for this year’s remaining volume of carbon credits from the Arnhem Land Fire Abatement NT (ALFA NT) project in Australia, and for the upcoming issuance of credits from the April Salumei Community Rainforest Conservation Project in Papua New Guinea.

Submissions to the expression of interest are due by Monday 4 November at 5pm AEDT.

Contact us to discuss your options.

Important information
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