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Boreal ForestOverview NewsThe Conservancy and eight other environmental groups have joined together with the Forest Products Associate of Canada to sign an historic agreement protecting 178 millions acres of Canada's Boreal Forest. Last Stand in the BorealExplore Canada’s Mackenzie Valley, where an alliance of First Nations, government, industry, and conservation groups is working to set aside ecoloically and culturally important lands in a network of protected areas before the intact landscape is opened up to development with the construction of a proposed new natural gas pipeline. The race for conservation first is on. Birds of the Boreal ForestThe Boreal Forest is North America’s songbird nursery, providing breeding habitat for more than 30 percent of North America’s entire bird population. Make a DifferenceWith your help, we can conserve and restore Canada's lands and waters for people and nature. |
Canada’s Boreal Forest accounts for one-quarter of the intact, original forest remaining on Earth. This vast region harbors life found in few other places on the planet and resources that once seemed infinite. But at this moment, the future of our Great North Woods is uncertain. The Nature Conservancy has joined forces with a broad coalition of First Nations, industry and NGOs to protect these 1.4 billion acres of wild frontier forest and indigenous lands.
Guided by the “50/50 vision” of the Boreal Conservation Framework, the Conservancy is working with partners to protect 50 percent of the entire Canadian Boreal Forest in a network of large, interconnected areas, while establishing sustainable use and good stewardship across the remaining 50 percent.
More than 1,500 prominent scientists from around the world have endorsed an open letter to all Canadian governments calling for the preservation of the Boreal as a landscape of global ecological significance. The Premiers of both Ontario and Quebec also recently recognized the importance of the Boreal with pledges to protect 50% of the Boreal habitat in each of the provinces.
Until recently, the Boreal Forest’s vastness, cold climate and remote location buffered it from pressures that have degraded other forests around the world. Now, mounting pressure for resources such as timber, hydroelectric power and minerals is chipping away at Canada’s Boreal Forest at a rate of about 1 percent a year — a rate of loss similar to the pace of destruction in tropical rainforests.
Many conservationists believe the fate of the Boreal Forest will be determined in the next 10 years, and the actions we take today may be the deciding factor. We have a choice: We can look to the future and see a forest of diminished beauty and biodiversity, lacking the places that sustain and enrich its people. Or, we can look to the future and see a forest that meets the needs of both people and nature.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Ian McAllister; Photo © Ian McAllister; Map © The Nature Conservancy.
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