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In the context of Australia's developing carbon economy, fire management helps to abate emissions of greenhouse gases and is an important means of generating carbon credits. The vast high-rainfall savannas of northern Australia are one of the world's most flammable landscapes. Management of fires in this region has the potential to assist with meeting emissions reduction targets, as well as conserving biodiversity and providing employment for Indigenous people in remote parts of Australia's north.This comprehensive volume brings together recent research from northern Australian savannas to pro

2-way country-challenges for inclusive, equitable and prosperous development in North Australia / Joe Morrison, Peter Yu, and Melissa George -- Change and continuity : the North Australia cultural landscape / Ricky Archer, Jeremy Russell-Smith, Seán Kerins, Bob Costanza, Andrew Edwards, and Kamaljit Sangha -- Northern Australian history : dispossession, colonisation and the assertion of indigenous rights / Howard Pedersen and Stuart Philpott -- Economic development across the north : historical and current context of possible alternatives / Rolf Gerritsen, Peter Whitehead, and Natalie Stoeckl -- Towards a sustainable diversified land sector economy for North Australia / Jeremy Russell-Smith, Kamaljit K. Sangha, Robert Costanza, Ida Kubiszewski, and Andrew Edwards -- Resilient communities and eliable prosperity / Glenn James, Bentley James, Joe Morrison, and Douglas Paton -- "Like a rusty nail, you can never hold us blackfellas down" : cultural resilience in the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria / Seán Kerins and Jacky Green -- Governing North Australian landscapes for a better future / Allan Dale

Despite an apparent structural integrity, the savanna landscapes of northern Australia are in flux. Important elements of the fauna have contracted in range and are less abundant than in the relatively recent past. Vegetation patterns are changing as populations of some important woody plants decline in some parts of the savannas while, in other places, different trees and shrubs are substantially increasing in density. These sorts of changes are occurring in lands under all tenures and subject to a variety of management goals and practices, including conservation reserves. Fire, large grazing animals and, more recently, invasive plants have all been implicated as drivers of adverse change. An important general, albeit inadequately tested, theory about apparently widespread faunal decline is that these influences have, jointly or separately, compromised landscape heterogeneity. It has been proposed that resource-rich patches that sustain savanna fauna through seasonal and longer-term peaks and troughs have been reduced in number, become more widely separated in space and time, or have been reduced in quality so that wildlife dependent on the rich patches struggle to use them effectively. The issues connected with these ideas were explored in a conference on fire and savanna management at Charles Darwin University in July 2003. Congruent with the theme of the symposium in which they were presented – Managing for Heterogeneity – the subset of papers presented here is diverse in origins, issues, perspectives and the spatial and temporal scales with which they deal. We consider that they make an important contribution to debate about conservation and development in northern Australia. Not because they answer the important questions, but because they illustrate the need for a shift in emphasis: from tentative exploration of pattern and weak inference about process to a harder-edged examination of the features of savanna habitats that influence their capacity to support viable wildlife populations.

AbstractAustralia has committed to substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) achieved through a national emissions trading system, raising important issues for relatively undeveloped regions of Northern Australia and, in particular, Indigenous lands. Can mostly Indigenous and socio‐economically disadvantaged people living in such regions develop institutions to contribute significantly to the mitigation of GHGE, yet pursue regional development? Will national policies adequately recognise the special needs and potential contributions of such communities? These questions and the challenges inherent in them are addressed in this article with reference to a significant initiative involving the community management of landscape fire to reduce annual GHGE from savanna burning. This initiative appears to offer potential for engagement with global carbon markets, but it will need local, national and international support, along with appropriate changes in attitudes and legal arrangements, to ensure an equitable distribution of tangible rewards, while protecting the cultural and related benefits of customary fire use. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Despite universal recognition that environmental policy should be informed by robust scientific evidence, this is frequently (and perhaps increasingly) not the case, even in wealthy countries such as Australia. How can the scientific community respond to this fundamental problem? While acknowledging that many constructive actions can be taken, and that scientists have a direct responsibility to inform the policy-making process and advocate for sound policy positions, we contend that such responses are insufficient unless the wider community is better informed and engaged. We agree with those who believe that a broader democratization of the policy-making process is essential to improving this situation, and that an expanded application of scenario planning, augmented with targeted public-opinion surveys, has considerable potential. Used in this way, scenario planning can help scientists engage with and inform citizens about the kind of world they want to live in, while incorporating the best science about possible futures.

Although it is generally acknowledged that fire-induced heterogeneity is important for maintaining diverse species assemblages in northern Australian savannas, scant relevant data are currently available to examine this proposition. The study takes advantage of a singular, detailed, bidecadal fire history assembled annually for Kakadu National Park to explore relationships between fire-induced heterogeneity and other terrain features. Three patch-based heterogeneity indices were calculated from assembled fire-history data for the central 1-ha cell of a 5 × 5 cell (25 ha) window; that is, at a spatial scale relevant to the home ranges of many small- to medium-sized native mammals. Two of these indices were first calculated separately for each year, employing different metrics based on the extent of burning occurring in the 5 × 5 cell array, and then averaged for each of four consecutive five-year periods and over all years. The third index was calculated as the sum of the coefficients of variation for four fire-regime variability parameters determined likewise for five- and 20-year periods. Assembled data illustrate that (1) fire-induced heterogeneity in Kakadu increased in each successive five-year period from 1981, and (2) when modelled with independent terrain coverages, significant relationships were obtained for all three heterogeneity indices with terrain roughness, distance to roads, and distance to drainage lines.

Risks and challenges associated with recurring natural hazards (especially wet season cyclonic and flooding events; dry season extensive savanna fires) facing remote north Australian Indigenous communities are well recognised. Less well appreciated are longer-term challenges required for building community resilience in the face of responding to natural hazards. We report on detailed surveys of community perceptions of resilience undertaken in two communities, Ngukurr and Gunbalanya, in northern Australia. This assessment highlights the critical challenge for government authorities to effectively engage with remote communities. We then address the equally challenging issue of enhancing resilience through building enterprise opportunities. Currently, only few employment opportunities exist in either community. Based on experience with market-based savanna burning greenhouse gas emissions abatement projects in north Australia, we illustrate the potential for ecosystem service-based enterprises to deliver culturally appropriate employment, which offers evident benefits for local communities in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from major natural disaster events.

AbstractThe release of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Change agreement highlighted the importance of global sustainability internationally. Here, we outline a vision and strategies for developing northern Australia that demonstrate how a focus on sustainable prosperity can both expand historical approaches and current government plans and integrate the biophysical realities with the social, political, and cultural characteristics of the region. We highlight examples of the significant horizontal and vertical integration opportunities that this expanded vision and related strategies provide for (a) land (carbon farming, targeted food production systems, and native title arrangements); (b) water (water resources management); (c) energy (renewable energy production, storage, and distribution); (d) workforce (culturally appropriate ecotourism, Indigenous ranger programs, and protected area management); (e) knowledge services (health care and innovative employment opportunities); and (f) governance (greater participatory governance). We found that realisation of even 10% of these emerging opportunities over the next 10 years alone could result in economic growth worth over AUD 15 billion and 15,000+ jobs for northern Australia as well as the further ecological and social benefits derived from a sustainable prosperity strategy.