The Global Forest Watch project has released the most advanced set of tools available to manage the world’s final frontier of untouched northern forests. The tools were introduced at a conference held by the Tiaga Rescue Network in Cambridge, UK.
Read the press release.
The maps are contained in three recently-published reports:
- Mapping Undisturbed Landscapes in Alaska
- Canada’s Large Intact Forest Landscapes and Canada’s Forest Landscape Fragments
- Mapping High Conservation Value Forests of Primorsky Kray, Russian Far East
The maps trace the frontiers of industrial influence across the forests of Canada and Alaska, and in the tiger habitats of the Russian Far East. A research consortium of non-governmental organizations examined thousands of satellite images and other data, searching for signs of human influence.
“If you don’t map it, you can’t manage it,” added Dmitry Aksenov of Global Forest Watch Russia. “Our maps allow forest companies to translate their policies into field operations.”
Several major companies have already adopted policies that relate to intact forest ecosystems and which require maps for their implementation:
- IKEA’s purchasing policy demands that wood in solid wood products “does not originate from intact natural forests, unless they are certified according to a standard recognized by IKEA.”
- Bank of America’s lending policy states that “lending proceeds will not go to logging operations in intact forests as defined by WRI mapping.”
- Canadian forest products companies Tembec and Alberta-Pacific have instituted policies for intact forest landscapes and forest fragments.
Several Canadian governments are not far behind. British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia have each adopted policies that address the maintenance of large, unfragmented forest landscapes.
