File:Fires in Australia (MODIS 2020-07-06).jpg

English: Dozens of fires were burning across Australia’s Northern Territory in early July 2020. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a true-color image of the fires on July 2.

Each red “hot spot” marks an area where the thermal bands on the MODIS instrument recognized high temperatures. When combined with typical smoke, as in this image, such hot spots mark actively burning fire.

While the mainland sports scattered hot spots and smudges of smoke, the major activity is located on the Tiwi Islands, where heavy smoke pours over part of Melville Island and the Timor Sea. The Tiwi Islands are part of Australia’s Northern Territory, Australia. They lie in the Timor Sea, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Darwin. The Tiwi Islands consist of Melville Island, Bathurst Island and 9 other smaller and islands. Primarily inhabited by indigenous peoples, the traditional use of fire to manage agricultural land is important to the welfare of the Tiwi Islands. Not only does the use of fire have importance to agriculture and tradition, the fires which are deliberately managed early in the dry season prevent larger, out of control bushfires later in the year. Fire is important to maintain the savannah and the biodiversity of the region. Too much fire, however, can cause damage to health and the landscape and reduce biodiversity.

According to the Tiwi Land Council website, nearly half of the Tiwi Islands are burnt every year, resulting in significant greenhouse gas emissions being released from vegetation and soil. While the substantial Tiwi cultural values related to fire need to be maintained, so does biodiversity, which also is an integral part to the cultural heritage of the Tiwi people, too much burning can cause damage. To encourage reduction of the fires, the Tiwi people can earn carbon credits for controlling and minimizing burns.

The Tiwi Land Council website states, “The Tiwi Carbon Study, which started in 2009, is identifying the environmental and economic potential of fire management for greenhouse gas abatement on the Tiwi Islands, in the context of developing sustainable livelihood opportunities for Tiwi people that meet their economic, environmental and cultural needs.” Key outcomes of the study include: quantification of emissions from Tiwi fires under the existing savanna burning methodology; establishment of a long-term field experiment for testing the impacts of different fire management options on vegetation, carbon dynamics and biodiversity; development of a new savanna burning methodology for carbon storage in ecosystems; and the ability for Tiwi to engage in burning for greenhouse gas abatement for economic benefit.