Happily found this in today's paper, from the Gazette in Montreal. A 60
page March 16/11 report, available through the link below, estimates the
forest's non-market services to be about 13.8 times greater than the net
market value of the raw material extracted from the forest, such as
minerals, oil, gas, timber, and hydroelectric power.
Pew Environment Group, a US-based non-profit company, hopes to revise
Canadians' thinking about the 1.2 million sq. kilometres forest:
"It's role as a unique, life-sustaining ecosystem outweighs by far the
value of its extractable raw materials.
We might not be used to thinking of ourselves as guardians of a land and
water mass of vital importance to the world, but we'll have to start."
Natalia
http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/reports/A-Forest-of-Blue-Canadas-Boreal-Forest-the-Worlds-Waterkeeper-328843
Seen from above, Canada's boreal forest shimmers on a bright summer day.
Much of the surface of Canada's boreal is comprised of countless lakes,
rivers and wetlands. It is literally a forest of blue.
Saving Canada's boreal forest is increasingly viewed as a global
conservation priority. But until recently, the water resources of the
boreal have garnered scant attention. This analysis
<http://www.pewenvironment.org/uploadedFiles/PEG/Publications/Report/PEGBoreaWaterReport11March2011.pdf> (PDF) is
the first compilation of decades of research on Canadian boreal water
reserves from diverse sources.
Stretching across the continent, Canada's boreal is the most intact
forest remaining on earth. It provides a vital bulwark against the
global loss of biodiversity, irreplaceable food and cultural benefits to
rural communities, and slows the impacts of global warming. These
ecosystem services have an estimated $700 billion annual value
<http://www.borealcanada.ca/documents/MackenzieReport_2010.pdf> (PDF).
Canada's boreal contains 25 percent of the world's wetlands and more
surface water than any other continental-scale landscape. The extensive
undammed rivers of the boreal serve as last refuges for many of the
world's sea-run migratory fish, including half of the remaining
populations of North American Atlantic salmon.
Canada's boreal waters also influence global climate. The wetlands and
peatlands store an estimated 147 billion tonnes of carbon
<http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/reports/the-carbon-the-world-forgot-8589940415>,
more than 25 years worth of current man-made emissions, and the delta of
the Mackenzie River alone stores 41 billion tonnes. The input of fresh
water from boreal rivers to the Arctic and other northern seas is
critical to forming sea ice, which cools the atmosphere and provides the
basis for much of arctic marine biodiversity.
Unfortunately, Canada's boreal forest is increasingly affected by
large-scale industrial activities. *The rapidly expanding development
footprint already includes 728,000 km² (180 million acres) impacted by
forestry, road building, mining, oil and gas extraction, and hydropower.*
Thankfully, progress is being made. Pew's International Boreal
Conservation Campaign
<http://www.pewenvironment.org/campaigns/international-boreal-campaign/id/8589935770/> works
closely with Canadian and international environmental organizations,
corporations and aboriginal First Nations to build support for the
Boreal Forest Conservation Framework
<http://www.borealcanada.ca/framework-full-e.php>, endorsed by 1,500
scientists around the world. The Boreal Framework calls for protecting a
minimum 50 percent of the region's land and waters, and applying strict
sustainable development rules on the remainder.
More than 12 percent of Canada's boreal has been strictly protected to
date, through commitments from federal, provincial and First Nations
governments, and support from industry and key stakeholder groups. More
steps toward widespread adoption and implementation of the Boreal
Framework are under way. Yet more must be done.
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