Indigenous Australians Take Carbon Farming To Canada

Established in 2010, Aboriginal Carbon Fund helps indigenous Australian organizations to make money by managing land in a way that it reduces carbon in the soil. The program has been extremely successful in Australia, where bush fires are common and can have devastating results. 

Aboriginal Carbon Fund helped indigenous communities to utilize their traditional methods like savannah burning to manage their ancestral lands in an effective way. Although savannah burning might feel counterintuitive, it has been proven that regular small fires in the savannah, an ancient Aboriginal practice, helps to prevent larger fires that release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

“Sustainable Indigenous land management, such as savannah burning, not only reduces carbon emissions but also builds communities by offering meaningful jobs for local traditional owners as rangers and an independent income,” Rowen Foley of Aboriginal Carbon Fund says.

Drawing on the Australian success, this effective indigenous land management program is spreading to Canada, following a meeting between Rowen Foley from the Aboriginal Carbon Fund and a Canadian carbon credit businessman at the 2015 Paris climate.

Although Canada and Australia have different geographical conditions, there are also similarities between the traditional land management methods of the indigenous communities. Lessons learned in indigenous land management in Australia are expected to benefit the Canadian First Nations people enormously.