Many savanna-dependent species in Africa including large herbivores and apex predators are at increasing risk of extinction. Achieving effective management of protected areas (PAs) in Africa where lions live will cost an estimated USD >$1-2 B/year in new funding. We explored the potential for fire management-based carbon-financing programs to fill this funding gap and benefit degrading savanna ecosystems. We demonstrated how introducing early dry season fire management programs could produce potential carbon revenues (PCR) from either a single carbon-financing method (avoided emissions) or from multiple sequestration methods ranging from USD $59.6-$655.9 M/year (at USD $5/ton) or USD $155.0 M–$1.7 B/year (at USD $13/ton). We highlighted variable but significant PCR for savanna PAs from USD $1.5–$44.4 M/year per PA. We suggest investing in fire management programs to jump-start the United Nations Decade of Ecological Restoration to help restore degraded African savannas and conserve imperiled keystone herbivores and apex predators. 

Provided here are two tables and five zipped shapefiles and associated readme files. The tables expand on the information provided in the publication. The shapefiles include the data used to produce figures 1 and 2 in the publication and figure S1 in the supplementary information. Read the methods section in the publication for more details.