Biodiversity, fire, carbon and economy in north Queensland 

Many people assume, as I did when I moved to Cairns six years ago, that northern Australia’s ecosystems – a virtually continuous stretch of bush from Cairns to Broome – are still relatively pristine and intact.

However, I soon learnt many species were fast disappearing from the North’s diverse habitats and landscapes. The wave of extinctions that swept through southern and central Australia soon after European settlement is now creeping across the north.

Associate Professor John Woinarski from Charles Darwin University says the decline we are witnessing across northern Australia can be remedied.

“The most important causal factors are predation by feral cats, inappropriate fire regimes and habitat change brought about by livestock and feral herbivores. Each of these factors can be controlled, so long as there is sufficient commitment and sufficient knowledge.”

The extinction wave facing northern Australia’s mammals is unique in the world in that the landscape is still largely intact – habitat destruction is not the principal cause.

In 2009, during a long and hot dry-spell, more than six million hectares of Cape York Peninsula burnt. In comparison, Victoria’s Black Saturday fires the same year burnt around 500,000 hectares.

Every year, from the Kimberley to the Cape, late dry season fires burn millions of hectares across northern Australia. These unplanned or poorly managed fires can take a heavy toll on the environment – contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, destroying habitat, facilitating weed invasion and transforming ecosystems.

With the ongoing success of fire management in the Northern Territory on the Arnhem Land Plateau, fire abatement projects are being planned for across the north including western Cape York Peninsula.

Central to these projects is a price on carbon and the ability to generate a financial return for the strategic management of fire that reduces greenhouse gasses.

In the Northern Territory, the West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement project has achieved a reduction of 707,000 tonnes of CO2 in its first four years of operation since 2006.

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Aboriginal lands, particularly in the Kimberley, the Top End and Cape York Peninsula, contain some of the most significant areas for biodiversity conservation in Australia. They are also, of course, of ongoing cultural significance to Traditional Owners. 

A suite of government supported voluntary measures, private enterprise and emerging economic opportunities in carbon markets are facilitating a range of land management opportunities that serve to address biodiversity decline, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide employment and economic opportunity in remote regions such as Cape York Peninsula.

Under the Federal Governments Clean Energy initiative – $271 million in funding for land management to reduce carbon emissions has recently been announced from the Biodiversity Fund. 

While more than 300 projects have been announced nationally, more than 50 are in Queensland with 20 of these in the north stretching from the Wet Tropics, the Gulf country to Cape York Peninsula.  Over the next six years, these projects are worth over $23 million to north Queensland.

The intent of the Biodiversity Fund, part of the Gillard Government’s Clean Energy Future plan, is to reduce carbon emissions through sound land management.

Providing $946 million over six years, the Fund aims to improve the resilience of flora and fauna and their habitats to climate change and reduce the amount of carbon sent into our atmosphere from poor land management. 

Revegetation, the control of feral pigs, the removal of weeds and keeping ecosystems in good health can all contribute to a reduction in our national carbon emissions. Healthy ecosystems are also more resilient to extremes in weather such as cyclones, floods and droughts.

Andrew Picone is the Northern Australia Program Officer for the Australian Conservation Foundation.