Presented by Geoff Lipsett-Moore (former TNC climate Specialist) at webinar: "Wildfire management, emissions and NDCs in the dry tropics", on 25 November 2020

1. EMISSION MITIGATION OPPORTUNITIES FOR SAVANNA
ECOSYSTEMS IN AUSTRALIA: METHODOLOGIES AND
ENABLING FACTORS.
Dr Geoff Lipsett-Moore

2. Outline
2
- Brief history of savanna burning (carbon projects) in Australia
- Key enabling conditions that supported the proliferation of projects
- Key opportunities for other savanna countries

3. WALFA
3
ConocoPhillips through Darwin LNG
signed the West Arnhem Land Fire
Management Agreement (WAFMA)
in 2006, supporting the West
Arnhem Land Fire Abatement
(WALFA) project – across 28,282
square kilometres of West Arnhem
Land in central Northern Territory
➢ Adjumarllarl Rangers from Oenpelli
➢ Djelk Rangers from Maningrida.
➢ Warddeken Rangers from
Kabulwarnamyo.
➢ Mimal Rangers from Bulman.
➢ Jawoyn Rangers from Katherine.

4. © Peter Eve for The Nature Conservancy© Ted Wood for The Nature Conservancy
Fish River Station

5. © 2013 Ted Wood for The Nature Conservancy
Early dry season fire management

6. Emissions abated49,000 tonnes of CO2-e abated over 4 years
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 2014
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
TonnesCO2Eemitted/yrX1000
2013
Baseline
Abatement

7. 7
Fish River
19 million ha of Savanna Burning projects registered under
the ERF

8. $0
$5,000,000
$10,000,000
$15,000,000
$20,000,000
$25,000,000
0
10,000,000
20,000,000
30,000,000
40,000,000
50,000,000
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Area(ha)
Indigenous ACCUs worth (@$16/t)
Late burns
Carbon projects area (Corrected with backdated
projects)
Luke Preece TNC

9. New savanna fire methods registered under the Emissions
Reduction Fund in 2018.
9
- Savanna fire management—sequestration and emissions
avoidance, the first method to credit sequestration and
emissions avoidance from improved fire management, and
- Savanna fire management—emissions avoidance, a
replacement for the 2015 savanna fire management method.
- However, little uptake of combined sequestration and
emissions avoidance method.

10. © 2013 Mark Godfrey for The Nature Conservancy
- Improved biodiversity and landscape health
- Reinvigorating cultural and social traditions
- Enhanced economic development
- Increased employment
- Climate change adaptation (reduction in LDS wildfires)
- Community social and cultural development
- Empowering communities
Additional
Co-benefits

11. Key enabling conditions that enabled the proliferation
of projects
11
- Strong scientific foundation (veg mapping, fire scar mapping, EF’s)
- Proof of concept projects WALFA and Fish River Station
- Indigenous Ranger programs with IFM knowledge and skills
- Regulatory Carbon Market (CFI and ERF)
- Approved savanna burning abatement methodologies
- Key tools available for fire planning and calculating baselines and
emissions reductions estimates (NAFI and SavBAT)

12. Lipsett-Moore, G.J., Wolff, N.H., and Game E.T. (2018) Global opportunity for emissions reductions from
savanna burning. Nature Communications, 9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04687-7

13. Options for global scale up
13
- Inclusion of provisional mitigation estimates and
adaptation opportunities within NDC’s for relevant
countries (see Lipsett-Moore et al. 2018).
- Adaptation of existing approved methodologies
(Australia) under the VCS for other geographies by
vegetation type: Cerrado, Miombo, etc (no need to
reinvent the wheel)

14. Key resources
14
- NAFI https://firenorth.org.au/nafi3/ for fire planning
- SavBat2.2 and 3 https://savbat.environment.gov.au/ for calculating
baselines and emissions reductions
- Approved Australian methodologies
http://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/ERF/Choosing-a-project-
type/Opportunities-for-the-land-sector/Savanna-burning-methods
- NB: 2015 methodology provides the best framework for adapting method
under the VCS for other geographies
- Contact: glm-consulting@outlook.com