Teacher background information

This elaboration provides students with opportunities to learn about how knowledge and experience in traditional fire management practices are creating employment and business opportunities for Aboriginal communities and providing significant benefit to the environment and to all Australians.  

Modern science recognises traditional fire management techniques as a means of reducing risk from bushfires as well as minimising greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. 

Since modern scientific understanding of fire ecology has recognised the effectiveness of traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fire management practices in mitigating bushfire risk and fostering biodiversity (see elaboration for ACSHE157), government authorities are now advocating the re-introduction of traditional fire-management regimes in northern Australia’s savanna regions. In addition to the ecological benefits, this approach has also created new economic opportunities for Aboriginal communities in northern Australia. As recent advances in remote-sensing technologies have made it possible to monitor greenhouse gas emissions from space (see elaboration for ACSHE158), carbon credit schemes have been initiated and provide an economic incentive to reapply land management practices that are informed by traditional ecological knowledge. 

The Carbon Farming Initiative (2011-2014, incorporated into the Emissions Reduction Fund from 2015) allows carbon credits to be earned by storing carbon or reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These carbon credits are measured in Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs) with each unit representing one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2-e) stored or avoided by a project. To be eligible for the credits, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ranger groups, land councils, traditional owners, local communities and other organisations participating in the scheme must first develop a vegetation map of their proposed area. The vegetation map is important because different types of vegetation generate different amounts of greenhouse gases. Participants must then determine a 10-year fire history of their area. From these data participants are able to calculate the area’s historical average baseline of greenhouse gas emissions. Project participants can then use vegetation maps and satellite fire maps to determine the emissions abatement achieved by the reinstated fire-management regime. Many of these projects, such as the WALFA project in Western Arnhem Land or the Fish River Fire Project southwest of Darwin, are undertaken in close collaboration with traditional owner groups and local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and rely heavily on the knowledge and expertise of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ranger groups. 

The carbon credits earned through these projects are on-sold to companies to offset the amount of greenhouse gas pollution they are emitting into the atmosphere. The monetary returns from these carbon trading schemes are reinvested locally to expand existing projects or found new initiatives, thus creating a demand for workers with experience in traditional ecological knowledge as well as in modern science and technology. This creates career opportunities for park rangers and field officers in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ranger groups, as well as ecologists, zoologists, botanists and similar science-related professions. It also provides opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to maintain and strengthen connection with country and place.  

By investigating the application of traditional fire management practices in the context of carbon abatement schemes to reduce and offset greenhouse gas emissions, students have opportunities to appreciate how traditional ecological knowledge, combined with contemporary science and technology, is creating new career opportunities in Indigenous communities of Northern Australia.