Olkola Ajin - Olkola Fire Project

Olkola Ajin - Olkola Fire Project is a Savanna Fire Management project located on the Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, approximately 290km northwest of Cairns near the historic town of Laura. It was registered in December 2014 and initially covered a vast 869,909.54 hectares.

Savanna fire management projects involve the strategic and planned "cool" burning of savanna areas during the early dry season, typically between May and July. This traditional practice reduces the fuel load on the ground, which prevents larger, hotter, and more destructive wildfires from occurring later in the dry season, thereby significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Cape York Peninsula area is characterised by a tropical monsoonal climate, falling within a high rainfall zone. The landscape is dominated by savanna woodlands, wetlands, and sandstone escarpments, with soils generally consisting of sandy loams and alluvial deposits. Historically, much of this land was cleared or used for cattle grazing as pastoral stations, but it is now dedicated to Indigenous conservation and is jointly managed as Aboriginal freehold land and the Olkola National Park.

This project is a prominent example of traditional Indigenous land management generating revenue through carbon markets to benefit the local community. The traditional patchwork burning techniques create local jobs and help protect the habitats of threatened species, such as the critically endangered Alwal (golden-shouldered parrot), which nests in the area's termite mounds. Additionally, the project successfully completed a major Commonwealth government contract (CAC310857) for 455,000 tonnes of abatement in January 2022. Following this, the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation signed a three-year off-take agreement with global asset manager Environmental Commodity Partners (ECP) in October 2022 to continue funding their Healthy Country Plan.