Aboriginal-owned company that’s responsible
for the protected area. “It’s putting so much
investment back into remote communities
where so few economic activities can happen.”
In western Arnhem Land, the results have been
transformational. In 2004, before fire manage-
ment began, 71 percent of the area burned, mostly
in intense late-dry-season wildfires. By contrast,
in 2020, 32 percent underwent strategic burning,
containing wildfires after August to just 2.1 per-
cent. That left 65.9 percent unburned, despite
near-catastrophic fire conditions that year.
Instead of thousands of blackened square miles,
vast areas of leafy canopies remain unscorched.
As the vegetation benefits, so does the wild-
life. Anecdotally, people have reported the
return of many native animals, including emus.
Ecologist Cara Penton says the results of Ward-
deken’s project to monitor species are still being
collated, but cameras set out on the savanna to
track small mammals often capture species her
Indigenous colleagues haven’t seen for years.
Northern quolls—small carnivorous marsupials
classified as endangered—were an exciting find,
she says: “People were really, really pleased to
see the quoll was still here.”
“NGANABBARRU!” Tinnesha Narorrga pulls
the four-wheel drive to a swift stop on the red,
dusty road. The 25-year-old ranger and two other
women slide from the front seat. One grabs the
rifle, and all three disappear into the bush, hot
on the hooves of a small, retreating herd of buf-
falo. The Daluk Rangers are on the hunt.
Warddeken established the Daluk Rangers
(daluk means “female” in the area’s Aborigi-
nal languages) in 2017, and Narorrga’s mother,
Suzannah Nabulwad, was a key player. “I saw
my brother and the other men going out and
thought, We can do that too,” she says. Employ-
ment would give the women independence. She
helped get the program running, then when her
daughter completed high school, she joined too.
The bush goes quiet, as if on pause, waiting
for a gunshot that doesn’t come. As twilight set-
tles in, Narorrga and the other rangers reemerge
from the scrub empty-handed. Nganabbarru are
faster than you’d think.
The Daluk Rangers are just one of Ward-
deken Land Management’s suite of ranger
programs funded by carbon credits. These pro-
grams employ 240 Indigenous men and women
across three ranger bases at the Mamadawerre,
A black kite, one of
three raptors known
as a firehawk, circles
over a fire set earlier
by hunters. Sometimes
congregating by the
hundreds, firehawks
prey on fleeing insects,
lizards, and other small
animals. They’re known
to carry burning sticks
more than half a mile
away to start new fires.90 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC