On a January day in 2020 skies darkened in New Zealand turning an ominous burnt orange. This was the impact of Australian bush fires, 4,000 kilometers away.
Figure 1: Australian bush fires, January 2020 (Image credit: NASA
Climate change coupled with mismanagement of landscapes appears to be the cause of these devastating fires.
But some Australian farmers are working to rehydrate the landscapes to help mitigate the worst impacts of these events. Unlike regeneration in the developing world, efforts in Australia appear to be mostly focussed on individual farms. This video reveals how Peter Andrews and Tony Coote inspired Australian farmers to regenerate their land.
Peter Andrews now advocates re-greening the whole continent.
Wide Open Agriculture, Western Australia
Wide Open Agriculture is a Western Australian company, partnering with Common Land, and the University of Western Australia to regenerate land in the wheat belt.
The impact of colonisation
Dr Christine Jones, a world-renown soil scientist identifies the damage of colonisation to the Australian landscape. Three minutes into this video she comments on what landscape paintings reveal about pre-colonial Australia.
In his book Dark Emu, Bryce Pascoe claims that Aboriginals grew grains in a belt that extended across the continent. This video argues that Aborigines used sophisticated land management practices.
Climate Action Tai Tokerau 