Sunday, November 29, 2009

Traditional indigenous fire management techniques deployed against climate change

Science Daily: A landmark Australian project that mitigates the extent and severity of natural savannah blazes by deploying traditional Indigenous fire management techniques is being hailed as a model with vast global potential in the fights against climate change and biodiversity loss, and for protecting Indigenous lands and culture.

The enterprise is expected initially to generate at least 1 million tonnes worth of carbon credit sales annually, creating over 200 new jobs in traditional Northern Australia Indigenous communities. Proponents heading to the December climate change talks in Copenhagen say similar projects can be adopted in the savannas of Africa, where the potential for reductions is very high.

Supported today by modern technologies like satellites, Indigenous fire management involves controlled early dry season fires to create fire breaks and patchy mosaics of burnt and un-burnt country. Pioneered centuries ago, the practice minimises destructive late dry season wildfires and maximises biodiversity protection.

In the last three years, the West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (WALFA) project has reduced CO2-equivalent emissions in Northern Australia by 488,000 tonnes -- an annual average of 140,000 tonnes that can be sold as credits on the carbon exchange market, valued today at A$10 per tonne….

A savanna fire, this one in Burkina Faso, shot by Marco Schmidt, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License

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