Payment for ecosystem services in practice – savanna burning and carbon abatement at Fish River, northern Australia

Tropical savannas occur in Africa, Australia, South America and southeast and southern Asia. These ecosystems support about 10% of the world’s population, occupy one-sixth of the land surface and contain the most fire prone vegetation on earth (Russell-Smith et al., 2013). In Australia, savannas occur in the wet-dry tropics and feature both trees, dominated by eucalypts, and herbaceous plants, principally grasses. A defining feature of savannas is the existence of a dry season lasting up to nine months of the year. Grasses in the savanna have short, intense growing periods during the wet season, then cure rapidly during the dry. Rainfall is seasonal, ranging from 300 to 2000 mm with high inter-annual variation. Here, we outline the Fish River Fire Project, the first early dry season savanna burning project to be declared under the Australian Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative and the first to have sold those credits, as a practical example of payment for ecosystem services.