Location: St Lawrence Wetlands, Avoid Island, Blackdown tablelands, Queensland
Indigenous leads: Samarla Deshong, Marrisa Deshong, Koinjmal
Science lead: Pep Canadell, NESP Climate Systems Hub
Team members: Mibu Fischer, CSIRO, Jena-Rose Miller, Jemay Deshong, Craig Gyemore, Fire Services, Shannon Clohessy
What we’re doing
This case study explores how cultural burning can support the health of Country. It will consider Indigenous fire knowledge and climate research to understand how cultural burning might be used to manage fire in a warming, drying climate.
Why it matters
Cultural burning is a vital practice for many First Nations peoples. Integrating it into modern fire strategies supports both environmental and cultural outcomes.
What we’ve found
Changes:
- More intense and frequent wildfires and bushfires
- Increasing fuel loads across Country
- Changes in fire behaviour and burn conditions
Impacts:
- Damage to soil health, seed banks and native vegetation
- Loss of habitat and biodiversity
- Drinking water quality and impacts on fresh water ecology
- Disruption to cultural burning and connection to Country
- Gaps in sharing cultural fire knowledge
- Carbon is loss from biomass and soils
- Invasive weeds germinate under extreme fire conditions
- Air pollution impacts health and well being
Case study focus:
- Understand how cultural burning affects Country, culture and communities
- Bring Indigenous knowledge and Western science together to support cultural burning within current fire management
systems - Document and share Indigenous-led cultural burning knowledge and practices
- Contribute Indigenous-led research to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Next steps
- Continue documenting cultural burning knowledge and outcomes
- Share approaches with other communities, researchers and land managers
- Develop Indigenous-led publications, comparison studies and case studies
- Inform fire management and climate adaptation, including through IPCC processes
Back to Project 5.10 Indigenous-led literature and products to inform national and international processes on climate action