ABCF: Calls for Savanna Burning to be applied to southern Australia
Aboriginal Carbon Foundation calls for savanna burning carbon abatement program to be applied to southern Australia
ABC Far North
Key points:
- The Federal Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund has issued nearly 7 million carbon credits since 2012 to burn tropical savannas in northern Australia
- The program aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by preventing late-season wildfires but also provides significant income to Aboriginal groups
- The Aboriginal Carbon Foundation believes a fire methodology to abate carbon should be developed for southern Australia
There have been mounting calls to increase Indigenous cultural burning to reduce bushfire risk, and the topic was on the agenda at a Ministerial Roundtable on the Bushfire Environment Response this week.
More than 30 million hectares of land in northern Australia has been managed through a program of prescribed burning, backed by Federal Government incentives, since 2012.
The Emissions Reduction Fund has issued nearly 7 million Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to 76 projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from intense, late-season blazes in fire-prone tropical savannas by conducting controlled burns in the cooler months.
Nearly half the savanna burning projects are managed or carried out by Indigenous Australians.
The Aboriginal Carbon Foundation has been involved in about a dozen of the projects, providing training and support, and obtaining a premium price for the proponents’ carbon credits.
(See the full story here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-24/savanna-burns-earn-carbon-credits-reduce-wildfire-risk/11874518)
