Rowan Foley
Founding Chief Executive Officer, Aboriginal Carbon Foundation
Advisory Board Member
Rowan Foley is a member of the Wondunna clan of the Badtjala people, Traditional Owners of K’gari (Fraser Island), Queensland.
He is the founder and chief executive of the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation, a non-profit organisation that connects Aboriginal communities supplying carbon credits with councils and businesses seeking to offset their carbon pollution. A ranger by trade himself, Rowan first moved to the Northern Territory in 1989 shortly after ‘hand back’ to work as a ranger at Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park. Subsequently he returned many years later with his family to be the Park Manager and implemented the $21m sunrise project.
In 1995 Rowan was employed as the Kimberley Land Council’s first Land Management Officer and went on to establish their Land Sea Management Unit and negotiated the first Indigenous Protected Area at Paruku (Lake Gregory) in Western Australia.
Rowan is providing leadership in the area of carbon farming with environmental, social and cultural values. He has presented at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn and Paris Climate Agreement, is a regular speaker at the Carbon Market Institute Summit and can often be found in remote communities working with Traditional Owners and Aboriginal rangers.
Advisory Board Member
Rowan Foley is a member of the Wondunna clan of the Badtjala people, Traditional Owners of K’gari (Fraser Island), Queensland.
He is the founder and chief executive of the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation, a non-profit organisation that connects Aboriginal communities supplying carbon credits with councils and businesses seeking to offset their carbon pollution. A ranger by trade himself, Rowan first moved to the Northern Territory in 1989 shortly after ‘hand back’ to work as a ranger at Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park. Subsequently he returned many years later with his family to be the Park Manager and implemented the $21m sunrise project.
In 1995 Rowan was employed as the Kimberley Land Council’s first Land Management Officer and went on to establish their Land Sea Management Unit and negotiated the first Indigenous Protected Area at Paruku (Lake Gregory) in Western Australia.
Rowan is providing leadership in the area of carbon farming with environmental, social and cultural values. He has presented at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn and Paris Climate Agreement, is a regular speaker at the Carbon Market Institute Summit and can often be found in remote communities working with Traditional Owners and Aboriginal rangers.
Leadership Roles & Achievements
- Advisory Board Member, Mabo Centre
- Founding Chief Executive Officer, Aboriginal Carbon Foundation
- Park Manager, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (2005-2008) - Central Australia. Implemented $21 million Sunrise Project.
- First Land Management Officer, Kimberley Land Council (1995) - Pioneering role
- Established Kimberley Land Council Land and Sea Management Unit
- Negotiated first Indigenous Protected Area at Paruku (Lake Gregory) in Western Australia
- Developed concept of Cultural Fire Credit (2019) in collaboration with Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation
- Developed Catalyst Markets - World's first Indigenous trading platform of environmental commodities. Cultural Fire Credits first commodity traded on platform.
- Presented at United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Bonn
- Presented at Paris Climate Agreement
- Attended COP27 Egypt (2023) - United Nations Climate Change Conference
- Social Enterprise World Forum, Brisbane (2022) - Investor presentations
Published Works
- 100 Climate Conversations podcast/transcript - '050 | 100 Rowan Foley Carbon farming and cultural burning'
- Cosmos Magazine feature - 'Indigenous carbon trading foundation leads the way with new platform' (March 2023)
- National Indigenous Times feature - 'Aboriginal Carbon Foundation earns carbon credits with strategic cultural burning' (January 2020)
- Australian Rural Leadership Foundation feature - 'Carbon farmer Rowan nurtures Country and culture in frontier industry' (March 2023)
- City of Sydney News - 'Aboriginal fire stick farming: close-to-home carbon offsetting'
- AbCF media - 'Strong Culture Of Innovation' (December 2023)