Traditional Aboriginal burning practices in Australia's savannah country could reduce national greenhouse emissions by nearly five megatonnes a year and trigger a $52 million-a-year industry, says one expert.

Environmental economist Scott Heckbert of the CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Townsville made the comments following a meeting in Canberra to discuss climate change and Indigenous people.

The Black Saturday fires of Australia's south-east may still be fresh in the minds of many, but Mr Heckbert says 90 per cent of fires actually occur in the continent's far north.

Each year large swathes of savannah are deluged by rain during the wet season, which boosts the growth of native grasses.

Traditionally, Aboriginal people would burn off these grasses using relatively small fires lit in a mosaic pattern, early in the dry season.

But since European settlement, Indigenous management of the land has declined.