Aim To compare fire behaviour and fire management practice at a site managed continuously by traditional Aboriginal owners with other sites in tropical northern Australia, including the nearby Kakadu National Park, and relate those observations to indicators of landscape condition. Location Dukaladjarranj, a clan estate in north‐central Arnhem Land, in the seasonal tropics of northern Australia. The site abuts a vast sandstone plateau that is an internationally recognized centre of plant and animal biodiversity. Methods Ecological assessments included: (1) mapping of the resource base of the estate from both traditional and ecological perspectives; (2) aerial survey of the extent of burning, distribution of the fire‐sensitive native pine Callitris intratropica, rock habitats, and a range of macropod and other fauna resources; (3) fauna inventory; (4) detailed ecological assessment of the status of fire‐sensitive vegetation; and (5) empirical assessment of the intensities of experimental fires. Ethnographic information concerning traditional fire management practice was documented in interviews with senior custodians. Results Experimental fires lit during the study were of low intensity compared with late dry season fires reported elsewhere, despite weather conditions favouring rapid combustion. In contrast to other parts of the savanna, fuel loads comprised mostly leaf litter and little grass. We found that (i) a large proportion of the estate had been burned during the year of the study (ii) burned sites attracted important animal food resources such as large macropods (iii) important plant foods remained abundant (iv) well represented in the landscape were fire sensitive vegetation types (e.g. Callitris intratropica Baker & Smith woodlands) and slow growing sandstone ‘heath’ typically dominated by myrtaceaous and proteaceous shrubs (v) diversity of vertebrate fauna was high, including rare or range‐restricted species (vi) exotic plants were all but absent. Traditional practice includes regular, smaller fires, lit throughout the year, and cooperation with neighbouring clans in planning and implementing burning regimes. Main conclusions We attribute the ecological integrity of the site to continued human occupation and maintenance of traditional fire management practice, which suppresses otherwise abundant annual grasses (Sorghum spp.) and limits accumulation of fuels in perennial grasses (Triodia spp.) or other litter. Suppression of fuels and coordination of fire use combine to greatly reduce wildfire risk and to produce and maintain diverse habitats. Aboriginal people derive clear economic benefits from this style of management, as evidenced by abundant and diverse animal and plant foods. However, the motives for the Aboriginal management system are complex and include the fulfillment of social and religious needs, a factor that remains important to Aboriginal people despite the rapid and ongoing transformation of their traditional lifestyles. The implication of this study is that the maintenance of the biodiv...

Managing fire regimes in north Australia J Russell-Smith et al. ). Conversely, very limited burning is typically undertaken in more fertile, productive settings, despite the potential for applying relatively intense fires to combat encroachment by woody vegetation in some pastoral regions (Williams et al. 2002).Much of the frequently fire-affected land is under Aboriginal ownership -either under freehold title or, increasingly, under non-exclusive title arrangements (known as "native title"), as part of recent formal Australian State and Territory Government recognition of prior Aboriginal custodianship. Outside of urban settlements, Aboriginal people constitute the majority of the rural population in remote north Australian territories and, despite being "land rich", they remain severely economically and socially disadvantaged (RussellSmith et al. 2009b; White-head et al. 2009).Fires are deliberately ignited for a variety of traditional Aboriginal and other landmanagement purposes; lightning ignitions are confined to the onset of the stormy monsoonal season, typically between October and December (Russell-Smith et al. 2007). Minimal infrastructure combined with a very sparsely settled rural population (< 0.1 person per km 2 ) has resulted in a limited capacity to manage escaped fires; fire regimes in many regional settings are therefore characterized by the frequent (annual-biennial) recurrence of large (> 1000 km 2 ), late dryseason wildfires. Despite the appearance that relatively unmodified north Australian, eucalypt-dominated savanna systems are structurally intact and healthy, contemporary fire regimes are increasingly recognized as having drastic regional impacts on sustainable land use (Russell-Smith et al. 2003b), biodiversity (Woinarski et al. 2011;Russell-Smith et al. 2012), and GHG emissions and C storage (Murphy et al. 2010;Williams et al. 2012). The development of these contemporary burning patterns follows a breakdown in traditional Aboriginal methods of fire management, associated with societal collapse dating from the late 19th century (Ritchie 2009;. Traditionally, burning was undertaken throughout the year over much of northern Australia, with a focus on implementing extensive "cleaning of country" management through intensive application of small patchy burns in the early-mid dry season (Russell-Smith et al. 2003b). In Aboriginal-owned West Arnhem Land, for 2010). Typically, accountable GHG emissions contribute between 2-4% of Australia's annual National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (NGGI; ANGA 2011a). In accordance with international accounting rules, Australia's NGGI does not account for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from savanna burning, on the assumption that such fires produce no net CO 2 flux (IPCC 1997). However, it is recognized that C fluxes in flammable savanna systems are dependent on fire regime characteristics, especially under changing fire frequency and intensity conditions (Beringer et al. 2007;Cook and Meyer 2009).In accordance with other provisions of the Kyoto Protocol, ...

Considerable research has been undertaken over the past two decades to apply remote sensing to the study of fire regimes across the savannas of northern Australia. This work has focused on two spatial scales of imagery resolution: coarse-resolution NOAA-AVHRR imagery for savanna-wide assessments both of the daily distribution of fires ('hot spots'), and cumulative mapping of burnt areas ('fire-scars') over the annual cycle; and fine-resolution Landsat imagery for undertaking detailed assessments of regional fire regimes. Importantly, substantial effort has been given to the validation of fire mapping products at both scales of resolution. At the savanna-wide scale, fire mapping activities have established that: (1) contrary to recent perception, from a national perspective the great majority of burning in any one year typically occurs in the tropical savannas; (2) the distribution of burning across the savannas is very uneven, occurring mostly in sparsely settled, higher rainfall, northern coastal and subcoastal regions (north-west Kimberley, Top End of the Northern Territory, around the Gulf of Carpentaria) across a variety of major land uses (pastoral, conservation, indigenous); whereas (3) limited burning is undertaken in regions with productive soils supporting more intensive pastoral management, particularly in Queensland; and (4) on a seasonal basis, most burning occurs in the latter half of the dry season, typically as uncontrolled wildfire. Decadal fine-resolution fire histories have also been assembled from multi-scene Landsat imagery for a number of fire-prone large properties (e.g. Kakadu and Nitmiluk National Parks) and local regions (e.g. Sturt Plateau and Victoria River District, Northern Territory). These studies have facilitated more refined description of various fire regime parameters (fire extent, seasonality, frequency, interval, patchiness) and, as dealt with elsewhere in this special issue, associated ecological assessments. This paper focuses firstly on the patterning of contemporary fire regimes across the savanna landscapes of northern Australia, and then addresses the implications of these data for our understanding of changes in fire regime since Aboriginal occupancy, and implications of contemporary patterns on biodiversity and emerging greenhouse issues.

The extent to which use of fire by Aboriginal peoples shaped the landscapes and biota of Australia is a contentious issue. Equally contentious is the proposition that attempts should be made to support and re-establish customary practice. Some dismiss Aboriginal practice as little more than culturally endorsed pyromania, and consequences for land, vegetation and wildlife management as incidental and unintended outcomes. We argue that this view of Aboriginal practice is at odds with available evidence regarding motivations for use of fire, and detailed and sophisticated descriptions of the consequences of poor fire management for the maintenance of important resources. We suggest that misunderstanding arises, at least in part, from the contrasting views that (i) objectives of Aboriginal land managers and the values they seek to extract and maintain in savanna landscapes are or should be similar to those of non-Indigenous land managers; or (ii) the notion that their goals are inherently and entirely incompatible with those of non-indigenous interests. We illustrate our argument with examples that include assessments of ecological consequences of 'prescribed' Aboriginal practice, statements from Aboriginal people regarding their objectives in applying those prescriptions, and the level of active organisation required for their effective implementation. Finally, we propose mechanisms for wider application of Aboriginal prescriptions in tropical landscapes to meet a range of land management objectives.

SUMMARYAustralia has committed to substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) achieved through a national emissions trading system, raising important issues for relatively undeveloped regions of Northern Australia and, in particular, Indigenous lands. Can mostly Indigenous and socio-economically disadvantaged people living in such regions develop institutions to contribute significantly to the mitigation of GHGE, yet pursue regional development? Will national policies adequately recognise the special needs and potential contributions of such communities? These questions and the challenges inherent in them are addressed in this article with reference to a significant initiative involving the community management of landscape fire to reduce annual GHGE from savanna burning. This initiative appears to offer potential for engagement with global carbon markets, but it will need local, national and international support, along with appropriate changes in attitudes and legal arrangements, to ensure an equitable distribution of tangible rewards, while protecting the cultural and related benefits of customary fire use.