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Video The Indigenous fire project generating carbon credits

Alison Middleton

Fish River Station sells carbon credits to Caltex.


CLAIRE MACKAY, PRESENTER: A property in the Northern Territory has become the first Indigenous project in Australia to sell carbon credits. Caltex has bought half a million dollars worth of credits from the Indigenous Land Corporation, which runs Fish River Station - a former cattle property turned conservation reserve, on the Daly River 200 kilometres south of Darwin. The ILC is carbon farming by carrying out controlled burning, to reduce intense wildfires and their greenhouse gas emissions. Alison Middleton reports.

ALISON MIDDLETON, REPORTER: In the skies above the mighty Daly River - a chopper buzzes on a special mission. Heading south over Fish River Station - it drops incendiaries - lighting up the savannah below.

SHAUN ANSELL, ILC OPERATIONS MANAGER: We run I suppose two essential types of prescribed burning on Fish River - ground burning and aerial prescribed burning. Now both types of burning aim to achieve the same thing and that's the reduction of fuel and the establishment of clean, burnt area fire breaks across the property.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The burning is carried out by a team including four Indigenous rangers.

JOHN DALY, RANGER & MENTOR: On the ground it's a bit heart pumping you know, sometimes the fire's a bit too high risk, but it's good - keeps you on your toes.

DESMOND DALY, RANGER: Having a job here is pretty good - get to learn different things, a lot of different things. When I was back in Daly I didn't know all this - that I could do all this work out here. Coming out here was a big step for me.

RODNEY MARRANYA, RANGER: Oh it's good. A lot of things to do - run the camp, going out spraying weeds, fire fighting.

ALISON MIDDLETON: They're fighting fire with fire. By deliberately burning early in the dry season when fires are less intense, the rangers are reducing the risk of more severe wildfires later in the year.

SHAUN ANSELL, ILC OPERATIONS MANAGER: A late season fire produces twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as an early season fire, so by putting in strategic, early dry-season breaks, we limit the amount of late season wildfire and that reduces the amount of greenhouse gas emissions each year.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The burning combines traditional Indigenous knowledge with the latest gadgets.

DESMOND DALY, RANGER: Back in days, old days, old people used to use sticks, grass for burning - it was good for them for hunting and gathering too. Nowadays we use choppers, helicopters, drip-torches.

JOHN DALY, RANGER & MENTOR: When you look at it you know, all we're doing is using the old, incorporating it with the new and now we're sort of deriving a dollar value from what we used to do in the past.

ALISON MIDDLETON: This is the first Indigenous program to make money through the Federal Government's carbon farming initiative. Carbon credits generated over two years of burning on Fish River were recently sold to Caltex for more than half a million dollars.

SHAUN ANSELL, ILC OPERATIONS MANAGER: I think we feel quite elated about it and a little bit relieved, it's been a long journey to get there but I think it's a great first step to break some new ground for this industry and to make sure that we can turn what's been a great idea into a commercial reality.

JACKIE FAHY, CALTEX: The monies from that will be used by the Fish River project for more employment opportunities, more training opportunities so we thought it was a very, yeah a really great project.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The sale of carbon credits covers the cost of the burning program at Fish River - but not the entire expenses of running the property.

SHAUN ANSELL, ILC OPERATIONS MANAGER: At the moment, the savannah burning work goes a long way to offsetting the cost of managing the property and we're still working on making the property sustainable in the long-term.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The idea of offsetting emissions this way was pioneered in west Arnhem Land six years ago. Rangers there struck a deal with Conoco Phillips - to be paid for their traditional burning techniques. Indigenous groups think there's plenty more potential for carbon farming in the Top End.

JOE MORRISON, NORTH AUST. INDIGENOUS LAND & SEA MGT ALLIANCE: There could be an order of about 450 to 500 thousand tonnes of abatement, potentially created by better management of fire in the Northern Territory Top End and that could create upwards of 100 to 150 full-time jobs.

JOHN DALY, RANGER & MENTOR: If big business, sat at the table, with Indigenous people right around the north here I think we can make a difference in Aboriginal people's lives and you know I think this is the way forward for a lot of the outstations out there that currently haven't got mechanisms to basically generate funds.

ALISON MIDDLETON: But some are worried about the viability of carbon farming - if the Coalition is elected to government and removes the carbon tax on the big polluters.

JOE MORRISON, NORTH AUST. INDIGENOUS LAND & SEA MGT ALLIANCE: We understand that the Coalition will keep the carbon farming initiative but it's not exactly sure whether that will then remain as a market-based instrument or will in fact be funded by public funds.

GREG HUNT, FEDERAL OPPOSITION: For Indigenous Australia and for regional Australia the carbon farming initiative continues, they will simply take their own product and they'll be able to market it, whether it's to the Australian government or whether it's to the voluntary market or they may want to sell it overseas.

SHAUN ANSELL, ILC OPERATIONS MANAGER: There's great bi-partisan support for the Carbon Farming Initiative and projects such as Fish River will continue to go regardless of a change in government should there be one.

ALISON MIDDLETON: The income generated from Fish River's first sale of carbon credits will be reinvested back into the property.

CEDRIC BLITNER, TRADITIONAL OWNER: It's very good because for them, you can run more training and programs for young T.O.s to get out on the land and stuff and get them involved in programs like this.

JOHN DALY, RANGER & MENTOR: I think it's extremely important for our mob to sort of get meaningful employment on our own land, you know like to actually live on your own country where you've sort of grown up and then draw a wage from working on your country and maintaining it, looking after it - there's no better outcome for you.

ALISON MIDDLETON: And for the young rangers already employed at Fish River, there's no place they'd rather be.

JACK DALY, RANGER: At the moment we're kind of the few young lucky ones out here and I think if we work here more longer we'll kind of shine a light and I suppose attract more of our people, younger people, younger generation out here.

DESMOND DALY, RANGER: Being out here it's good for a young bloke like me to find a job, get to be on the countryside, makes me feel good, the place I want to be for the rest of my life, working here.

7.30 NT