Raak Nguunge

Raak Nguunge is a savanna fire management project located at Pormpuraaw, an Aboriginal community on the west coast of Queensland's Cape York Peninsula, approximately 650km northwest of Cairns. It was registered in October 2014 and covers a vast 420,652.57 hectares. The regional land use consists primarily of Aboriginal freehold land dedicated to traditional land management, conservation, and community activities.

Savanna fire management projects involve strategic and planned burning of savanna areas during the early dry season. The standard requirements of this methodology dictate that conducting cool, controlled burns in the tropical winter reduces fuel loads. This minimizes the risk, extent, and intensity of destructive, late dry season wildfires, successfully preventing large greenhouse gas emissions that would otherwise occur compared to historical baselines.

The Pormpuraaw region is located in a high rainfall, monsoonal climate zone characterised by distinct wet and dry seasons. The local environment features coastal sandy dunes, salt pans, and wetlands, transitioning into inland savanna woodlands dominated by eucalypt and melaleuca species. Soils typically range from coastal sands and mud flats to alluvial clays on the floodplains.

Raak Nguunge translates to 'burning season' in the local Kuuk Thaayorre language. The project is a highly successful collaboration between the Pormpuraaw Aboriginal Shire Council and the Pormpuraaw Land & Sea Management Rangers. Beyond carbon abatement, the initiative provides stable income for the community and supports a Junior Rangers program that passes traditional ecological knowledge to younger generations. The project has successfully fulfilled two Carbon Abatement Contracts (CAC139389 and CAC932170) and transitioned in 2016 from an earlier 2013 methodology to the 2015 Savanna Fire Management determination.