Canada Making Great Strides to Protect Boreal Forests and Carbon Stores

The Endangered Whooping Crane. Photo: USFWS

In October, the Province of Quebec protected 4.4 million acres of forests and wetlands in 23 new conservation areas. Fifteen of 23 new conservation areas are in the boreal forest zone. Logging, mining and the development of hydropower will be prohibited.

Earlier this year, Ontario’s Premiere, Dalton McGuinty, announced a commitment by the Province to protect over 55 million acres of Canada’s Boreal Forest, an area the size of the United Kingdom. The scale of the plan, which would protect 50% of Ontario’s Boreal Forest, is unprecedented in North American history, and will help ensure the long-term integrity of a vital ecosystem, underscoring its global role as a critical carbon storehouse.

“We are now working to have other Provinces in Canada take similar measures to protect half of their boreal forests,” said Dr. Jeff Wells of the Boreal Songbird Initiative to participants of the Bird Conservation Alliance meeting November 11.

The decision follows recommendations made last May by 1,500 scientists for the Canadian Government to set aside at least half of Canada’s Boreal Forest in large, interconnected protected areas, to guard against climate change and protect internationally significant wildlife populations.

The Boreal Forest (or Taiga) is the world’s largest biome, composed primarily of conifers, that stretches from Siberia eastwards across the northern reaches of Russia and Europe to Alaska, taking in northern Japan and Kazakhstan, Minnesota, Michigan, Upstate New York, New Hampshire, Maine, and much of southern and central Canada. Scientists identify the 1.4 billion-acre Canadian Boreal Forest as one of the world’s most significant and largest intact forest and wetland ecosystems.

Billions of migratory songbirds and waterfowl migrate from all over the United States and Latin America to breed there, birds as diverse as thrushes, warblers, orioles, plovers, woodpeckers, loons, and grouse. In total, half of North America’s birds are dependent on Canada's Boreal Forest for their survival, as are some of the largest populations of wolves, grizzly bears, and woodland caribou. The seasonally waterlogged landscape is breeding habitat for Whooping Cranes and Wilson’s Phalarope. The forest is also the world’s single largest terrestrial carbon storehouse; the Canadian portion alone stores 186 billion tons of carbon – equivalent to 27 years of the world’s carbon dioxide fossil fuel emissions. It also contains the majority of North America's fresh, unfrozen water.

On his blog, renowned naturalist Scott Weidensaul said, “Given that the Boreal Forest is the great bird factory of North America, producing billions of migratory songbirds, waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors, this is arguably the single biggest win in history for bird conservation.”