Prepared by the United Nations University with contributions from Rick Anderson (Latin America), Robin Beatty (Africa, Introductory Materials, Australian Experience), Jeremy Russell-Smith (Asia, SFiM Preconditions) and Guido van der Werf (Global Savanna Fire Emissions). |
PART I – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples in Australia and around the world have used fire as a land management tool. Such use of fire by Indigenous and local communities has often been interrupted. These interruptions to traditional management have resulted in high-intensity fire regimes and correspondingly high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from savanna wildfires. Recent experience in remote north Australia demonstrates that strategic reintroduction of traditional, Early Dry Season (EDS) fire management practices can reduce emissions by more than a third. When coupled with carbon market participation, or through other funding sources, this reduction also provides meaningful income opportunities for remote Indigenous communities. Savanna Fire Management (SFiM) projects also have notable co-benefits such as improving biodiversity, reinvigorating cultural ties to country, improving food security and health, enhancing human capital, and helping remote communities adapt to climate change. Savannas support about 10% of the human population, occupy one-sixth of the land surface and, while rates of land use change are uncertain, are likely to suffer twice the rate of conversion as for tropical forests. During the 1997-2014 period, net emissions of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Nitrous Oxide (N2O) and Methane (CH4) from fires in savanna amounted to approximately 0.31 Gt CO2-eq per year. Savanna fire emissions are predominantly sourced from Africa, contributing approximately 71% of all savanna CO2 emissions, followed by South America (12%), Australia (7.3%) and South East and Equatorial Asia (5.9%). Other regions - including Central America, temperate North America, Boreal Asia, Europe and Central Asia - also make small contributions to the total emissions from savanna landscapes. ‘Savanna burning’ is an accountable activity under the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol. Australia is the only developed economy that accounts for emissions from the burning of tropical savanna in its national accounts. SFiM in tropical north Australia savanna is covered by approved methods under Australia’s Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF). Under these savanna fire management methods, prescribed burns are conducted early in the dry season, lowering the intensity and extent of Late Dry Season (LDS) fires, and reducing total biomass burnt. The methodologies build upon early work undertaken by Traditional Owners in Australia in projects such as the West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (WALFA) Project and the Fish River Fire Project. As of October 2015, there were 14 Indigenous-led fire management projects across the north of Australia. Guided by the success of northern Australia’s SFiM emissions abatement programmes, the Australian Government funded the United Nations University’s Traditional Knowledge Initiative (UNU-TKI) to manage a two-year ‘International Savanna Fire Management Initiative’ that has assessed the interest in and feasibility of establishing similar initiatives in developing countries. In order to achieve this, regional feasibility assessments were undertaken in three separate regions of the world that contain notable tracts of tropical savanna – namely Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The purpose of the assessments was to provide communities, governments, experts and potential donors with an informed starting point to explore the potential for implementing SFiM in their region. Proposals for SFiM implementation activities in promising savanna sub-regions were also developed. |