Earth's green halo

Home to a myriad of habitats

The Boreal Forest is truly an amazing place. Preservation of this abundant, intact forest will not only protect us from accelerated climate change, but also protect a wide-range of biodiversity from ecological collapse.

Here are some facts about one of the largest intact ecosystems on the planet, Canada's Boreal Forest:

• On May 18, 2010, the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement commenced by placing a three-year moratorium on more than 70 million acres (29 hectares) of woodland caribou habitat in the Boreal Forest
• Under the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, Forests Products Association of Canada members will work to develop climate friendly practices considering the full life carbon cycle of standing forests and wood products.
• A 50% reduction in logging in the Boreal would reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking all the passenger cars in Canada off the road;
• Logging in the Boreal releases half as much global warming pollution as all the vehicles in California (If California were a country, it would be the 10th largest contributor to global warming);
• Second to the ocean, the Boreal's soils and forests are considered the largest terrestrial carbon storehouse in the world, making it a vital regulator of global climate;
• The Boreal alone comprises one-quarter of the world's remaining original forests;
• Since 1975, logging companies have cut down 65 million acres of the Boreal, an area the size of the United Kingdom;
• Billions of birds, about a third of all of North America's songbirds, migrate to the Boreal to breed in its rich habitat;
• Over a million freshwater lakes make it a haven for fish and waterfowl;
• The Boreal ecosystem supports the largest freshwater system in the world, holding almost a third of the world’s freshwater.