1. Lindsay Hutley (CDU) Jeremy Russell-Smith (NTG)
Savanna burning in a climate changed economy North Australia’s contributions to national adaptation and mitigation efforts
Lindsay Hutley (CDU)
Jeremy Russell-Smith (NTG)

2. Talk outline What and where are the savannas?
Climate change impacts on this ecosystem
Savanna burning as a mitigation activity – the WALFA program
Partial and full carbon accounting – the carbon economy

3. Savannas across north Australia
Tree-grass mixtures: competitive co-exisitance

4. Savannas across north Australia

5. Savannas burn every year
Dry season - highly flammable landscape
Fire emits GHGs  CO2, methane, N20
Photo Sam Setterfield

6. Savanna burning – 2011 fire scars

7. Savanna burning 1-3% of national GHG emissions, 35-50% of NT emissions
Impact of climate change on savanna burning?

8. Climate trends – rainfall
2010/2011 Wet
Top End mm
Centre mm

9. Climate change and savanna landscapes
How will climate change affect these landscapes?
Savanna structure and productivity shaped by climate and fire interactions
Reduce or increase productivity (sink)? Or no change?
CO2

10. Savanna fire risk Living with climate change
Hotter, wetter wet, more CO2  productivity may increase = increased fuel
Hotter dry season = fire risk enhanced
Invasive grasses across mesic savanna adds to risk
GHG mitigation via fire management
manage fire differently to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Case study – Western Arnhemland Fire Abatement Scheme (WALFA)
Experiment in landscape scale fire management

11. WALFA – GHG abatement scheme
Savanna GHG emission likely to increase
Fire regime change over time
de-population of many Aboriginal lands
lack of resources to manage vast landscapes
late dry season high severity / high impact fires more prevalent
biodiversity loss
Solution  WALFA?

12. Fire scars May 1999 WALFA area

13. Fire scars end November 1999

14. Co-occurrence of restricted range and endemic species
Woinarski et al. 2005, 2009

15. WALFA – savanna fire abatement scheme
Western Arnhemland region chosen – km2
Significant biodiversity hot spot
Significant fire problem
Unique partnership between traditional owners, NT and Commonwealth Governments and private funders
Aims
Shift fire regimes at landscape scales
Reintroduce traditional burning regime, increase early dry season fires and patchiness
Accurately quantify savanna GHG emission factors
Develop remote sensing techniques to map fires and calculate emissions

21. Accountable emissions of non-CO2 gases
WALFA – savanna fire abatement scheme
Accountable emissions of non-CO2 gases

22. Top End
2011 Fire scars

23. WALFA program Seasonality of burning Pre-project baseline
(b) GHG Emissions

24. Five Projects Across Northern Australia
Potential for ~0.5 Mt CO2-e y-1 abatement

25. Savanna burning and fire abatement
But there’s more ...
WALFA partial carbon accounting
only non-CO2 gases emitted accountable under IPCC rules
Full carbon accounting
Account for all components of the GHG balance
Sequestration in vegetation and soil - CO2 uptake and loss
Shift in fire regime to EDS mosaics will enhance tree productivity and carbon sink
Soil carbon ??

26. WALFA - Non-CO2 savanna GHG fluxes
CH4
N2O
CH4
N2O

27. Savanna carbon balance – full carbon accounting
Fos
Fus
CO2
Rleaf
Rsom
Rroot
Rwood
CO2
Soil carbon
Above and below ground biomass pools
GPP, NPP, NEP, NBP C

28. Investigate savanna fire cycle
on mass and energy exchange

29. Enhanced savanna ‘fire sink’
For lowland savanna of WALFA area
Known area of km2
For savanna
carbon sink small and sensitive to fire regime
assume sink is low, ~0.1 t C ha-1 y-1
Sequestration with EDS mosaic – 0.48 Mt CO2-e y-1
Emissions abatement with EDS mosaic – 0.15 Mt CO2-e y-1
WALFA sequestration under current rules not accountable
Difficult to quantify over space and time

30. Conclusions Climate change likely to promote flammability
WALFA program has reduced emissions by 50% of managed area
Savanna fire return time (1-3 y) means an emissions saving every year is achievable
Other benefits
Income stream for remote Aboriginal custodians
Transform social and biodiversity landscape
Likely to enhance carbon sink as an ecosystem service
Developed methodology to be included in Carbon Farming Initiative
A 1 or 2%+ emissions reduction may be nationally significant

31. Questions