Pungalina Seven Emu Carbon Abatement (Revoked)

Pungalina Seven Emu Carbon Abatement is a revoked Savanna Fire Management project located at the Pungalina-Seven Emu Sanctuary in the Northern Territory, roughly 150km east of Borroloola near the Gulf of Carpentaria. It was registered in February 2016 and covered an expansive 194,849.28 hectares.

The surrounding Gulf Coastal bioregion has historically been dominated by cattle grazing and pastoral leaseholds. The local environment features a tropical climate with highly seasonal precipitation that generally brings between 800 and 1200mm of annual rain, classifying the project area within the method's low rainfall savanna zone. The region's terrain consists largely of rugged sandstone plateaus, while soils are predominantly characterised by sandy red earths and shallow gravelly sands.

Savanna fire management projects involve the strategic, planned burning of savanna landscapes during the cooler early dry season. These low-intensity burns deliberately reduce accumulated fuel loads to mitigate the risk of massive, high-intensity late dry season wildfires. By preventing these severe wildfires, less dead organic matter is consumed, thereby significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preserving carbon stored in the landscape.

This project was part of a landmark conservation partnership between the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) and Indigenous landholder Frank Shadforth. Under this arrangement, Shadforth subleased a large portion of the Seven Emu pastoral lease for wildlife conservation, ensuring that station cattle were actively kept out of the designated zone to allow ecosystems to recover. While the project underwent a variation in May 2017 to remove certain areas from the carbon boundary, the project ultimately came to an end and was officially revoked under section 30 of the CFI Rule on March 17, 2026.