Canadian Actions Preserve 20 Percent of Its Vast Boreal Forest

With the addition of a new forest reserve in Manitoba, Canada has now set aside 250 million acres of its vast boreal forest as parks or preserves, prohibiting logging, mining or oil drilling in these areas. The protected areas, more than twice the size of California, represent roughly one-fifth of Canada’s 1.3 billion acres of boreal forests, which scientists say contain 22 percent of the stored carbon on the Earth’s land surface. Gary Doer, the outgoing premier of Manitoba, announced a $10 million fund that will support efforts by indigenous leaders to designate 10.8 million acres of boreal forest in eastern Manitoba as a Unesco world heritage site. Environmental leaders say that protecting the boreal, or northern, forest is one of the best defenses against a warming climate. “There is so much carbon sequestered in it already that if it escaped it would pose a whole new, very grave threat,” said Steve Kallick, director of the Pew Environment Group’s International Boreal Conservation Campaign. The boreal forest, located primarily in Canada and Russia, consists of swamps, peatlands, and forests that are made up of five primary tree species — spruce, fir, pine, birch, and aspen.