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Mary Tarran on James Price Point negogitaions
Jabirr Jabirr Traditional Owner Mary Tarran discusses the importance of protecting Indigenous culture and heritage at James Price Point.
North Kimberley Fire Abatement Project
The North Kimberley Fire Abatement Project is aimed at getting Traditional Owners involved in carbon trading in the Kimberley.
The project involves burning country the right way in order to reduce greenhouse gasses that cause global warming and climate change.
The Australian Government has given funding to the Kimberley land Council and other northern land councils, through NAILSMA, to prepare to start carbon trading in 2013.
Carbon trading involves companies and industry that produce substantial quantities of pollution having to pay for the damage they cause to the environment. That money is then given to groups and projects that improve the environment by reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions entering the atmosphere.
The Wilinggin, Uungguu, Dambimangari and Balanggarra ranger groups are heading the North Kimberley project, which focuses on burning tall grass.
Kimberley rangers are in the process of learning the western science behind carbon abatement, which involves constructing equations that calculate how much greenhouse gas or smoke is released into the environment when there is a controlled burn compared to an out-of-control wildfire.
Wildfires release toxic smoke into the air, increasing pollution through emitting greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Burning the right way – through controlled burns or carbon abatement – allows for country to burn at the right time of year, therefore reducing the amount of smokes and gasses released into the environment.
The vision is for Kimberley rangers to conduct environmentally-friendly controlled burns to reduce the greenhouse gasses that are released into the atmosphere. These carbon offsets could then be sold to companies that have high-pollution rates.
Training before trading
The North Kimberley Fire Abatement steering committee was established at the beginning of this year to conduct research into carbon trading and give directions on the project.
The Balanggarra, Uungguu, Dambimangari and Wilinggin native title claim groups are represented on the steering committee and involved in the research and training process.
The KLC is assisting Traditional Owners with the North Kimberley Fire Abatement project and has presented at community meetings to explain its relevance to Kimberley communities and ranger duties.
Ranger groups, representing the four native title claim areas, will be responsible for fire planning which maps out when, where and how controlled burns will be conducted on country.
Burning will be conducted using a combination of traditional cultural knowledge and western scientific methods and technologies. Research work will also need to be completed before carbon trading can begin in 2013. This will involve investigating and recording how much smoke and greenhouse gas emissions are emitted from various forms of fire, including controlled burns and out-of-control wildfires.
Research will also be completed on the impacts burning tall grass has on the local flora and fauna populations, to ensure the highest environmental standards are met.
