Mapoon Carbon Project

Mapoon Carbon Project is a savanna fire management project located at Old Mapoon on the western coast of the Cape York Peninsula, approximately 88km north of Weipa in Far North Queensland. It was registered in October 2014 and covers 175,588.48 ha.

Savanna fire management projects involve the strategic and planned burning of savanna areas during the early dry season. This cool burning technique is used to reduce ground fuel loads and lower the risk of high-emission, unmanaged late dry season wildfires.

The Mapoon region is known for traditional Aboriginal land management, conservation areas, and large-scale bauxite mining. The project area falls within a monsoonal high rainfall zone, and the local soils consist predominantly of red and yellow kandosols heavily layered with bauxite pisoliths and lateritic ferricrete.

This project is run by the Old Mapoon Aboriginal Corporation (OMAC), which represents the Tjungundji, Yupungathi, and other Traditional Owner groups. The project not only generates Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) but also yields important cultural and social co-benefits. The operations support the Mapoon Land & Sea Rangers and help fund cultural heritage surveys, the protection of sacred sites, and the maintenance of keeping places for repatriated artifacts. In May 2016, the project was updated from the 2013 early dry season savanna burning methodology to the 2015 emissions abatement determination. Carbon credits generated by this project have been acquired by several prominent organisations, including the Cromwell Property Group, the City of Melbourne, and Plenary Group, to help meet their Climate Active carbon-neutral certification goals.