MainDB: Community-based fire management in Australia

Title: Community-based fire management in Australia
NWPWeblink:
NWPTypeOfOrganization: National/public entity
NWPGeographicRegion: Pacific/Oceania
Scope of work:
NWPMandatesandFrameworks:
NWPModalityApproachandMechanism:
NWPEffortsToAddressSOE:
NWPRelevantStakeholders:
NWPFocusonNElossesFlag:
NWPImpactAreas:
NWPOutputs:
Good practices and lessons learned: The outcomes achieved by the West Arnhem Fire project have potential application across fire-prone tropical Australia and other fire-prone savannas of the tropics. Fire management provides co-benefits, including climate change mitigation and economic benefits through employment. However, it requires repeated annual implementation in order to be successful.
NWPGapsChallenges:
Date of submission:
Abbreviation:
Activities: The project works with indigenous fire managers to reduce unmanaged wildfires across an area of 28,000 km2. Fire management includes early dry-season burning that breaks up the landscape and makes it more difficult for wildfires to spread across the fire breaks later in the year.
Adaptation element: Adaptation planning and practices; Capacity building
Adaptation sector/theme: Agriculture; Ecosystems; Biodiversity; Ecosystem-based adaptation
Climate hazard:
Country: Australia
NWPDataSource: EbA
Description: West Arnhem Land is a remote, tropical savanna region in Australia’s Northern Territory. Wildfires play an important role in the management of the ecosystem, although uncontrolled wildfires are a risk to adjacent land managers and globally significant rock art sites, and can threaten ecosystems, overwhelming their adaptive defences. Climate change impacts are expected to increase the size, intensity, and frequency of wildfires in Australia, and extend the fire season. The intervention involves prescribed fire management to avoid seasonally occurring disastrous wildfires, in partnership with the local Aboriginal people who manage parts of Arnhem Land in this way, resulting in a low incidence of devastating wildfires.
Expected outcome:
Further information: Submitted by, or prepared in conjunction with the Northern Territory Government in Australia, in partnership with others. Relevant URLs: https://researchers.cdu.edu.au/en/publications/the-western-arnhem-land-fire-abatement-walfa-project-the-institut
NWPGeographicScope:
Indicators of achievement:
NWPInformationType: Case study
NWPJoinDate:
NWPPartner: Northern Territory Government, Australia

Purpose:
Regional group:
Target group:
NWPWorkStream: NWP
NWPYear:
NWPOutcome: Limiting wildfires in this way prevents the degradation of different plant communities and helps conserve environmental and cultural values in Arnhem Land. Greenhouse gas emissions are also reduced as studies have shown that early dry season fires emit less greenhouse gases per area affected than the more intense, late dry season fires. A partnership with the owners of a nearby Liquefied Natural Gas plant provides around US$1 million to the Aboriginal Traditional Owners of Western Arnhem Land to implement the annual prescribed burning, to offset an estimated 100,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent per year.
NWPPartners:
Type of knowledge resource:
Scale of work:
NWPSlowOnsetEvents:
NWPReferences: ProAct Network 2008. The Role of Environmental Management and eco-engineering in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation: https://www.unisdr.org/files/4148_em.report.annex1.pdf 
Colls, A., Ash, N. and Ikkala, N (2009). Ecosystem-based Adaptation: a natural response to climate change. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN: https://www.iucn.org/content/ecosystem-based-adaptation-a-natural-response-climate-change
Implementing partners:
NWPYearPublication:
NWPUpdate:
SourceItemID:
NWPSecendaryEmail:
NWPPrimaryEmail:
NWPTypeOfKnowledge:
NWPCountryItem:
NWPRelevantWeblinks:

Created at 21/04/2016 10:39 by Roberto Felix
Last modified at 16/05/2022 18:52 by Nicholas Hamp-Adams
 
Go back to list
Home(NWPStaging)