Indigenous people paid to manage fires

22 Feb 2012, 2:31 pm   -   Source: AAP
0 Comments
Share This
+ Comment
0
Early dry season (EDS) fires are lower intensity, more patchy and have a greater propensity to extinguish spontaneously than late season blazes. (AAP)

Early dry season (EDS) fires are lower intensity, more patchy and have a greater propensity to extinguish spontaneously than late season blazes. (AAP)

Indigenous land managers will be paid for shifting the timing of savanna burning to earlier in the dry season in the tropical north of Australia.

RELATED

Indigenous land managers will be paid for reducing the number of late dry season fires in the tropical north of Australia under Labor's carbon farming initiative (CFI).

The Gillard government on Wednesday released the so-called "savanna burning methodology" which outlines how people can make money by reducing the amount of methane and nitrous oxide released by fires in the country's north.

"Indigenous land managers and farmers will shift the timing of savanna burning to earlier in the dry season and reduce the area burnt," Regional Australia Minister Simon Crean said in a statement on Wednesday.

"This reduces the amount of fuel burnt which reduces emissions of methane and nitrous oxide - potent greenhouse gases."

Under the voluntary CFI, landholders can sell carbon credits direct to businesses which want to offset their emissions or become carbon neutral.

If indigenous people can reduce dangerous emissions produced by fires they'll be able to make a profit from that abatement activity.

Early dry season (EDS) fires are lower intensity, more patchy and have a greater propensity to extinguish spontaneously than late season blazes, the methodology states.

Indigenous land managers will therefore undertake "strategic EDS burning" to reduce the extent and risk of late dry season fires by creating "a network of inter-linking burnt patches and corridors".

Labor's former climate change adviser Ross Garnaut believes that once carbon farming is part of the government's emissions trading scheme it could be worth $2.25 billion a year - the equivalent of another wool industry.

Farmers Australia-wide can be paid for storing carbon in trees and soil or reducing their own emissions.

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.