Fish River Fire Project

The Fish River Fire Project is a landmark Savanna Fire Management project located on Fish River Station, approximately 150 kilometers south of Darwin and 50 kilometers south of the Daly River community in the Northern Territory. Registered in October 2012, this project covers a vast area of approximately 178,083 hectares. The station, formerly a cattle grazing property, was acquired in 2010 by the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC) specifically for conservation and carbon farming, marking a significant shift in regional land use toward environmental stewardship.

The project operates under the Savanna Fire Management methodology, which is designed for the high rainfall zones of Northern Australia. This method involves conducting strategic, cool burns during the early dry season (typically April to July) to reduce fuel loads. By creating a mosaic of burnt and unburnt country, the project mitigates the risk of high-intensity, destructive wildfires during the late dry season. This shift in fire regime significantly reduces emissions of methane and nitrous oxide that would otherwise be released by uncontrolled hot fires.

Environmentally, the region is characterized by a tropical savanna climate with distinct wet and dry seasons. The landscape is rugged and diverse, featuring sandstone escarpments, open woodlands, and extensive floodplains along the Daly River. The soils vary from sandy loams on the plateaus to alluvial clays in the river basins. Notably, the Fish River Fire Project is historically significant as the first savanna burning project approved in Australia and the first Indigenous project to generate and sell Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) globally, with its initial credits sold to Caltex in 2012. The project represents a successful collaboration between the ILSC, The Nature Conservancy, and the Pew Charitable Trusts.