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Abstract

Savanna burning contributes between 2-4% annually to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions

accounts. However, fire is a natural process and a key land management tool in the northern

Australian rangelands. Fire is used to control woodland thickening, improve pasture

production and quality, control weeds and manage habitat for biodiversity conservation. In

recent times there has been a concerted attempt to move away from complete fire suppression

and its consequence: frequent, high intensity wildfires late in the dry season. In fire-adapted

vegetation types, prescribed early dry season fires have the advantages of providing an

effective management tool for reducing the incidence of late season wildfires and generating

less greenhouse gas emissions. However such a fire regime, in combination with grazing,

may result in undesirable levels of woody vegetation thickening. The emergence of a carbon

economy in Australia hints at the opportunity for pastoral land managers to diversify their

enterprises by adopting fire management practices which reduce greenhouse gas emissions

and increase longer term sequestration into living biomass. This opportunity comes at a time

when the economic performance of the northern pastoral industry is suffering. In order to

realise benefits from a new rangelands economy, we need to identify and address the gaps in

scientific knowledge, current policy settings and implementation to optimise the

conservation, production, emissions and economic outcomes.