The boreal forest occupies nearly half of Canada's land mass, yet it's more significant to national myth and memory – as home to the coureurs de bois and the hewers of wood – than it is to any discussion of a shared future.
But the blanket of woodlands that runs all the way from Yukon to the coast of Labrador may play a huge role in the battle to protect the planet from climate change.
As one of the last great intact forests on Earth, along with the Russian taiga and the Amazon rain forest, the boreal is considered one of the world's largest carbon storage systems. The trees and soil of Canada's northern forest form a critical shield against global warming, storing a volume of carbon equal to 27 times the world's annual greenhouse-gas emissions.
That's why organizations such as the U.S.-based Pew Trust have invested more than $40-million in the last seven years to lobby for greater protection of Canada's forests. Their efforts contributed to a major announcement by the federal government last month that removes more than 4 million hectares of land from development in the Northwest Territories.
Land around the East Arm of Great Slave Lake is designated to become a national park, and the area of the Ramparts River and Wetlands will become a national wildlife area. More than 60,000 square kilometres of land claimed by the Akaitcho Dene First Nations also will be set aside to prevent mining and mineral exploration over the next five years.
“In a world where so many natural ecosystems are under threat, the boreal stands out as one of those places where we might actually be able to turn the corner and strike the right balance between maintaining intact ecosystems, maintaining opportunities for local aboriginal [populations], while also benefiting from its tremendous natural-resource wealth,” said Larry Innes, director of the Canadian Boreal Initiative.
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His group's Boreal Framework, endorsed by 1,500 scientists, calls for half the forest's 560 million hectares to be protected from development. So far more than 40 million hectares have been put aside, and the group hopes to add another 4 to 8 million hectares in the next few years.
Joshua Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment group in Philadelphia, which funds the Boreal Initiative, said conservation efforts in Canada offer large-scale rewards, backed up by a level of democratic political stability that often can't be found in other parts of the world.
“We're focused on a different scale of protection than is often the case with some conservation organizations. We're looking to protect vast functional ecosystems … and there's not very many areas of the world that offer those kinds of opportunities,” he said. “There's a lot of land [in Northern Canada] to be protected and once a political decision is made to protect it, there's no serious concern about those decisions and the protections being enforced.
“We view it as one of the last great remaining wilderness areas on Earth,” he said.
The boreal is home to the world's largest population of wolves and grizzly bears, as well as the threatened woodland caribou, and serves as the nesting ground for three billion songbirds and waterfowl, he said. Its more than a million lakes and waterways form the world's largest freshwater reserve.
Considering what's at stake and what has been achieved, Mr. Reichert said Pew's $40-million investment has paid off handsomely, with a cost per protected hectare of about 16 cents.
