Fish River Fire Project

Fish River Fire Project is an Emissions Abatement through Savanna Fire Management project located at Fish River Station, approximately 50km south of Daly River (Nauiyu) and 150km south of Darwin in the Northern Territory. It was registered in October 2012 and covers an area of 178,083.49 hectares.

Savanna Fire Management projects involve strategic and planned burning of savanna areas in high rainfall zones during the early dry season. This standard methodology safely reduces the accumulation of flammable ground fuel, which lowers the risk, intensity, and frequency of unmanaged late dry season wildfires, thereby reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions.

The Daly River region is known predominantly for pastoralism, with beef cattle grazing making up over half of the land use, alongside significant protected conservation areas. The region is classified as a high rainfall tropical savanna with distinct wet and dry seasons. Soils in the basin largely consist of deep, earthy red Kandosols and iron-rich Ferrosols, along with cracking clay Vertosols found near the river floodplains.

This project was a landmark initiative, serving as the first Indigenous early dry season savanna burning project to earn carbon credits under the Carbon Farming Initiative. It was also the first of its kind to sell Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to a corporate buyer, initially trading credits with Caltex Australia. The Fish River property was jointly purchased in 2011 by the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC) in partnership with the Australian Government and non-profit conservation groups. The project actively employs Aboriginal rangers and traditional owners to conduct the fire management programs, which simultaneously protects vital biodiversity in the Daly River basin, including the threatened northern quoll, Gouldian finch, and the culturally significant pig-nosed turtle.