by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
It does? Really? The native peoples could have told us that ages ago had we but been prepared to listen.
Australia is no stranger to traumatic and devastating wildfires and has been for ever and a day and the Aborigines sure know that.
Climate change is being blamed as the likely culprit for the continent's exceptionally severe blazes, but the indigenous people of Australia have been dealing with fire—indeed, managing it—for centuries.
The truth is, while climate change is being blamed for the severe fires on Terra Australis, arson is most of the times the real culprit and at other times lightning.
Bad forests management, the same kind that is used in the US and Britain, of leaving debris on the forest floor, is a contributing factor and the fire ladder. But this is something that many environmentalists do not wish to have true as they are the culprits behind the leaving of the debris “for the wildlife”.
Among Australia's indigenous communities, fire is actually considered a positive thing: a force of creation, not destruction. Now, the government is mining this local knowledge to help fight climate change, and not before time.
Hired by the government as fire managers, these experts are providing new approaches to reducing the risk of large-scale fires using methods that reduce carbon emissions.
Members of the West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (WALFA) program have produced real results: already reducing CO2-equivalent emissions in Northern Australia by 488,000 tonnes.
WALFA, which will create more than 200 jobs in indigenous communities in Australia, is expected to generate 1 million tonnes of carbon credit sales every year.
Joe Morrison, CEO of the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance, explained that "in time, as the carbon market matures and world prices per tonne rise, these credits will more than pay for the costs of the fire abatement projects."
But it's not all about making money. In addition to creating and selling carbon credits, the program fosters biodiversity and protects important landscapes. It also benefits for local communities by creating "greater employment, the inter-generational transfer of traditional knowledge, and cross-cultural confidence essential to developing tourism and other sustainable business activities."
Perhaps the best part of this program, however, is that organizers believe it can serve as a model for mitigating emissions from fire in regions of savannah around the world, and not just in such savannah regions. Such methods could also be used, as they ones were, in forest of, for instance, the United States.
The American Indians too used fire as a range management tool, from time immemorial, as did the US Forest Service for many decades; that was until the do-gooders,t he environmentalists told them that they had to leave the debris for the wildlife and claimed that the burning management harmed the wildlife. Enter the devastating forest- and wildfires in California and elsewhere. Oops!
Chris Justice, a professor at the University of Maryland and the NASA MODIS Fire Lead, explained that, "some 37% of global carbon emissions by biomass burning come from Africa, mostly released by human induced savannah fires," and went on to say that the project in Australia "demonstrates a valuable, alternative way to help Africa's poorest not only play a role mitigating climate change, but also to develop sustainable livelihoods to tackle their main issue – poverty."
Addressing the problems brought on by global climate change will continue to be a challenge. Sam Johnston, a senior fellow at the United Nations University said that, "the importance of local and individual efforts to tackle this global problem cannot be overstated...leadership will come from the ground not the top."
Building knowledge and systems on the ground, however, can be difficult. Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, chair of the UN body on Indigenous Issues, explained: "the world would gain greatly from proven ancient approaches built on profound respect for the Earth." WALFA may help solidify those approaches on the ground so that they can influence decisions being made at the top.
And not just for land management with fire should we look to the indigenous knowledge. We must do so also for other issues that beset Mother Earth, and we must do that now and not next year. Indigenous people can teach us a great deal as to how to treat Mother Earth and how to live in harmony with all of the Planet,
© 2010
