In recent years, international attention has increasingly focused on the rapid conversion and degradation of the world’s tropical forests. Yet half of the remaining large tracts of natural forest are found in northern (or boreal) regions.
This report provides a first look at the scale and magnitude of development within Canada, one of
the world’s major repositories of northern forests. Canada is home to over a third of the world’s boreal forest and a tenth of total global forest cover. Largely unsuited to agriculture, these forests have escaped widespread conversion to farmland and ranches – key threats in tropical regions.This northern frontier is rapidly being opened up for its timber, energy, and mineral resources.Logging is the dominant activity and a key sector in Canada’s economy; the forest industry generated over $68 billion in sales and $11 billion in wages in 1996.
Global Forest Watch (GFW) Canada – a network of regional and local environmental groups and First Nations – has set out to answer the four basic questions GFW addresses worldwide. What large-scale development is occurring in forests, and where? What environmental impacts and economic benefits does this development entail? Who are the key actors engaged in these activities? Are these activities compatible with legislation set out to promote forest stewardship? In this report, we present preliminary results, drawing largely on available data, but including new analysis derived by combining spatial (mapped) datasets through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Canada’s forests are managed predominantly for timber. However, the Canadian public values forests primarily for nontimber uses.
Some 94 percent of Canada’s forests are held in the public trust by federal and provincial governments. Polling data indicate Canadians most value forests for nontimber uses: for species habitat; for ecosystem services such as watershed protection and carbon storage; and for intrinsic wilderness value. However:
- 52 percent of forests are managed as logging tenures. In contrast, less than 8 percent of Canada’s forests are fully protected, although many new parks and reserves have been established in recent years.
- Of 10 major forest types, 6 have at least two thirds of their area allocated as logging tenure.
- Canada maintains its lead as the world’s biggest timber exporter through logging of old-growth and primary forests, which account for 90 percent of the harvest.
- Clearcuts make up over 80 percent of annual harvested area. Although economically efficient, clearcutting results in quite different disturbance patterns than fires and other natural processes. The ratio of clearcut area to the area using partial harvest systems has remained unchanged over the last two decades.
- 95 percent of all major forested watersheds include roads, mines, settlements, and other developments. These pose unquantified threats to watershed protection functions, carbon storage, and other ecosystem services provided by forests.
Canada’s most species-rich and productive forests have been extensively modified by development activities.
- Over half of the forests in 7 of Canada’s 10 major forest regions have been fragmented by roads and other access routes.
- About three-fifths of the eastern Carolinian forests and the Aspen forests bordering the prairies have been converted to agricultural and residential land.
- Coastal forests of British Colombia – home to one fifth of the world’s remaining temperate rainforest and noted for exceptional biodiversity – are under widespread development pressure. Over 80 percent of this forest has been allocated to logging companies (through tenure areas managed for timber harvest, which include extensive tracts of forest not destined for cutting). Nearly half the forest is fragmented by roads and access routes in blocks less than 200 square kilometers in size.
