By Angela Macdonald-Smith
Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Australia’s aboriginal communities could generate income and create jobs by reducing carbon emissions on their land through the management of fires, forests and grazing, the national science organization said.
Indigenous communities could generate income of A$52 million ($36 million) a year and create more than 1,000 seasonal jobs from managing properties in a way that creates carbon offsets for sale, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation said today in an e-mailed statement.
Carbon offsets, credits representing cuts in greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, can be generated by projects that produce clean energy or remove CO2 from the atmosphere. They are bought by companies or individuals to cancel out their carbon pollution. Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia’s second- biggest oil and gas producer, and Newmont Mining Corp. are among companies that have signed carbon offset accords.
“This research is an encouraging sign that indigenous people can have a key role in tackling climate change as well as actively participating in Australia’s emerging carbon economy,” Joe Ross, an indigenous leader, said in the statement.
Australia plans to introduce carbon trading in 2010, placing a cost on carbon pollution for the first time. A study of six properties owned by the Indigenous Land Corp. found potential for a carbon offset industry that could prevent 2.6 million metric tons a year of carbon entering the atmosphere, Dan Walker, the organization’s sustainable ecosystems chief, said in the statement.
The Indigenous Land Corp. owns properties including tourism operations and cattle and sheep stations.
To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net
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