Files and links (1)
CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Fire for the future: governance of market-based savanna fire management projects in Arnhem Land, northern Australia
International journal of wildland fire, Vol.33(12)
2024
Abstract
Background
Developing effective participatory community-based governance is a key challenge for delivering equitable outcomes in market-based carbon and ecosystem services projects.
Aim
To explore Indigenous participants’ perspectives concerning implementation of representative community-based governance model for the longest running and largest market-based savanna fire management (SFM) project in northern Australia, the Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (ALFA) projects.
Methods
The study employed semi-structured interviews conducted between 2020–2022 exploring governance priorities and outcomes with 20 Indigenous participants occupying ALFA project leadership positions.
Key results
The ALFA governance model, involving participation of Indigenous Ranger Groups (IRGs) and representation of traditional Landowners as Directors on an entirely Indigenous-led Board, was considered to provide effective SFM project oversight and broader community acceptance. Identified benefits included supporting local cultural fire and land management responsibilities, regional networking, collective decision-making for benefit-sharing arrangements. Expressed concerns included potential for external IRG hosting institutions to diminish decision-making responsibilities of traditional Landowners, and preference for local IRG’s to strengthen links to traditional Landowners to promote broad community benefits.
Conclusions
The principles of the Indigenous representative and participatory ALFA governance model serve as an instructive example for local communities in other regional settings seeking to leverage emergent development opportunities through ecosystem service economies.
Details
- Title
- Fire for the future: governance of market-based savanna fire management projects in Arnhem Land, northern Australia
- Authors/Creators
- Taegan CalnanDean YibarbukJeremy Russell-Smith
- Publication Details
- International journal of wildland fire, Vol.33(12)
- Publisher
- CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF
- Number of pages
- 17
- Grant note
- Australian Government
The Australian Government provided a Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship to the corresponding author for this research.
- Identifiers
- 991005753929807891
- Copyright
- © 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)).
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Murdoch University
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites
Metrics
245 File views/ downloads
35 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Citation topics
- 3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
- 3.40 Forestry
- 3.40.838 Rangeland Dynamics
- Web Of Science research areas
- Forestry
- ESI research areas
- Plant & Animal Science