A lack of control of land management on our homelands has resulted in deleterious fire management regimes being broadly applied to Kaanju estates, which is of concern to traditional owners and our families currently residing on homelands. There is a history of exclusion of Kaanju people from non-Aboriginal discussions of fire and no attempt has been made to develop an understanding of Kaanju perspectives on fire, nor to develop methodologies for collaborative fire management. Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation has recently completed a report Kaanju Fire Management 2003, funded by the Cape York Peninsula Development Association (CYPDA) Fire Project through Balkanu Cape York Development Corporation, which should go some way to rectify this problem.
The report investigates a number of issues, including:
Current fire burning regimes on Kaanju homelands.
Kaanju view of current fire research.
Kaanju priorities for fire research and how research should take place.
How Kaanju people wish to see fire management take place on country and recommendations, including current constraints.
Resources required for appropriate fire management on Kaanju lands.
Evidence of any habitat change from changed burning regimes.
The Kaanju Fire Report stressed a number of points:
(1) Kaanju people have an existing fire management science, based on thousands of years of knowledge and practice, which has been transferred through ancestral bloodlines to the contemporary knowledge and practice.
(2) Western science and government need to acknowledge indigenous fire management knowledge and practice as a legitimate science and recognise the primacy of Kaanju management on homelands.
(3) According to Kaanju governance structures there are certain people who have responsibilities to burn and these people need to be resourced to practice their existing fire management.
(4) Kaanju people are concerned about current imposed fire practices, in particular technical tools such as satellite imagery that take photographs of people's homelands without permission, and are ineffectual for on-ground management.
We are currently developing a fire management strategy and the basic structure is outlined in our Kaanju Homelands Land and Resource Management Framework.
This project will develop a fire management and carbon abatement strategy for the Kuuku I'yu (northern Kaanju) Ngaachi centred on the upper Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers in Cape York Peninsula. It will assess the potential of traditional burning techniques to reduce greenhouse emissions and improve biodiversity values within the bounds of northern Kaanju law. The strategy will assess potential greenhouse gas abatement across the Wenlock and Pascoe River basins using established techniques. It will also collate the principles of northern Kaanju fire management and the resources needed to implement it. A long-term monitoring program to assess the response of biodiversity to the return of northern Kaanju fire management will be outlined.
The outcome of the project will be a Fire Management Strategy for northern Kaanju people to reach the greenhouse emission target required, and ensure that the fire management is compatible with northern Kaanju traditional law.
Background
Fire management has changed greatly on northern Kaanju Ngaachi since European occupation. Traditional fire management has broken down over large areas. The disruption of Indigenous fire management and the imposition of western fire management (or lack of management) has degraded the land, threatening the natural and cultural values of the northern Kaanju Ngaachi. Fires are hotter, later in the dry season and burn over larger areas. Rainforests along the rivers, creeks and around sinkholes are being damaged by these hot, late fires, and the habitat structure of the surrounding savannas has also changed. Weeds such as Mission grass and Gamba grass have been introduced, which if not controlled, will further increase fire severity, as Gamba grass already has in similar environments in the Northern Territory.
Globally, climate change is underway. Governments and some private industries are searching for ways to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases (such as Carbon dioxide, Methane and Sulphur dioxide) going into the atmosphere. One way to do this is to reduce the amount of fire in northern Australian savannas. This has been done with great success in the Western Arnhem Land Fire Agreement, and CSIRO have recently conducted work to assess greenhouse abatement potential from other parts of northern Australia (although not the northern Kaanju Homelands).
A successful greenhouse gas abatement program requires sufficient monitoring to determine the amount of greenhouse emissions reduced, and sufficient human, transport and infrastructure resources on the ground to carry out the work. Northern Kaanju people have customary rights and responsibilities for fire management on their clan estates under Kaanju law. This project will be the first step in formalising a return to northern Kaanju people exercising these rights and regaining these responsibilities.
It is important that land managers in the area co-operate to manage fire as fire has no respect for property boundaries. This program will achieve co-operation as it involves a coalition of land managers on the Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers and a willingness among these partners to improve fire management. Wolverton station in particular already works closely with Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation on fire management and control issues.
The return to Kaanju Fire Management has been an aspiration of Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation for many years. The following impediments were identified as a result of some preliminary work by Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation which has been reported on in the Kaanju Homelands Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers Indigenous Protected Area Management Plan.
Impediments to recovery of northern Kaanju fire management:
Lack of management control and tenure security on northern Kaanju lands under other tenure arrangements (e.g. National Parks and pastoral lease)
Lack of recognition and support by government for primary Indigenous management on homelands.
Poor communication and effective engagement between traditional owners and government.
Lack of resources to carry out fire management and human power on the ground.
(source: Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation, 2005)
This project will address all four of these impediments and problems to some degree, especially the fourth impediment.
The aims of the project are to identify:
The carbon sequestration potential of the upper Wenlock and Pascoe River basins
The methods of fire monitoring to be used to assess fire area reduction
The workforce, infrastructure and road requirements to implement Kaanju fire management
A monitoring program to assess the response of flora and fauna to the return of northern Kaanju fire management.
The aims of the project will be achieved by:
Identifying and mapping fire-sensitive habitats in discussion with Chuulangun Rangers, and collating fire management action for their protection.
Mapping and analysing recent fire history on northern Kaanju Ngaachi using NAFI, ACRIS and/or NOAA data, and comparing with local knowledge of fire history.
Using NAFI, ACRIS and/or NOAA data to calculate potential greenhouse gas abatement on the Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers.
Developing a pre-fire monitoring program as a baseline to measure changes in flora and fauna as a result of a return to northern Kaanju fire management, including species to monitor, methods of monitoring and establishment of GIS and database to store the information.
Developing an inventory of fire-affected species (western and traditional knowledge) that are likely to benefit from a return to northern Kaanju fire management and options for monitoring them.
Reporting on fire management for each major vegetation type on northern Kaanju Homelands
Developing methods for on-ground assessment of recent fire extent (for validation of satellite data)
Discussing fire management principles with Chuulangun rangers and collating report
Discussing road, infrastructure and human resource requirements with northern Kaanju people to calculate management cost.
Project Outcomes
1. Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Abatement potential, including:
Fire history assessment
Potential greenhouse gas abatement (tonnes/year) under a return to northern Kaanju fire management and its economic value.
2. Northern Kaanju Fire Management Strategy, including:
