The northern Australian tropical savannas extend over 1.9 million km2 of the continent and include the northern reaches of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. Contemporary fire regimes across this area have significant implications for greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration, pastoral production, along with biodiversity and soil conservation; and affect broader social issues particularly for many indigenous communities.
The Australian Government contracted Auricht Projects to develop a spatial dataset and derive a savanna-wide map of vegetation fuel types for use in Australian Government greenhouse gas emissions abatement programs. Involved development of a transparent, rigorous and repeatable method to map fuel types within the high rainfall (above 1000 mm) and low rainfall (between 600 mm and 1000 mm) northern tropical savannas in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. Specifically the dataset (developed in collaboration with Charles Darwin University), was developed in accordance with the classification system developed by the North Australia Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance for a combined high and low rainfall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
The dataset and associated map is aimed at supporting Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) proponents or potential proponents under the Carbon Farming (Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Early Dry Season Savanna Burning 1.1) Methodology Determination to provide scenarios that estimate emissions abatement under the CFI or Emissions Reduction Fund methodology.
For further information refer to the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) Savanna Burning Abatement Tool (SavBAT) and the North Australian Fire Information Service (NAFI) website (> More Tools >SavBAT) and SavBAT