Canada sets aside its boreal forest as giant carbon vault

www.guardian.co.uk...

Canada sets aside its boreal forest as giant carbon vault

By banning logging, mining and oil drilling in an area twice the size of California, Canada is ensuring its boreal forests continue to soak up carbon.

n the far north latitudes, buried within a seemingly endless expanse of evergreen forests, the authorities in Canada are building up one of the world's best natural defences against global warming.

In a series of initiatives, Canadian provincial governments and aboriginal leaders have set aside vast tracts of coniferous woods, wetlands, and peat. The conservation drive bans logging, mining, and oil drilling on some 250m acres – an area more than twice the size of California.

The sheer scale of the forest conservation drive is somewhat of an anomaly for Canada, whose government has been accused of sabotaging the global climate change talks by its development of the Alberta tar sands and its refusal to make deep cuts in its greenhouse gas emissions.

Last week, a former adviser to Barack Obama urged Canada to do more to keep up with America's moves towards a cleaner energy economy.

In the latest addition to the carbon storehouse, the provincial premier of Manitoba, Gary Doer, this month announced a $10m (£5.6m) Canadian fund to protect a 10.8m acre expanse of boreal or evergreen forest. It was one of Doer's last acts as premier; he took over as Canada's ambassador to Washington this month.

The $10m will go towards efforts by indigenous leaders to designate boreal forest lands in eastern Manitoba as a Unesco world heritage site. The Pimachiowin Aki world heritage project, which straddles the Manitoba-Ontario border, extends efforts by Canadian provincial leaders to protect the wide swaths of pristine forests in the north. It also ensures the survival of one of the best natural defences against global warming after the world's oceans, environmentalists say.

A report by the International Boreal Conservation Campaign said the forests, with their rich mix of trees, wetlands, peat and tundra, were a far bigger carbon store than scientists had realised, soaking up 22% of the total carbon stored on the earth's land surface.

I believe this is one of the most important things that ANY government has done, to aid the planet.
TheRedneck and I last year vowed to plant more trees to soak up carbon, and now this news comes along. If all nations were to do this, we wouldn't have to worry about "Carbon Credits" or "cap and trade" laws.

I think that if you cleared that forest there would be bigger problems than lack of carbon sequestration. Forests play a big role in global climates and removing large amounts would no doubt stuff up the 'equilibrium'.

Hey that's awesome... Bigfoot needs a place to roam around without having to worry about being seen by anyone....

seriously though Good for Canada, now what they should do is create a few hiking paths through them for some of us adventurous types...

Way to go Canada


Not often that mother nature takes priority over max profits.

I just hope future government respect the land that has been put aside.

I've been to the northern territories and I see this as a non starter.
!. You can fit cali in the back pocket of this area.
2. The borrel forrests are nothing but # lumber. not good for logging. The giant fir forrest of western BC is where all the money trees are at. In fact some of the largest clear-cuts in the world are there. You can see them from space.
3. There are probably no roads to this area & it would cost alot to get there and develop it. They can do better with natural gas in the NWT.
4. Canada has been trying to pay off the First Nations now for years. Not like america they never signed any treatys. This I think is a buy out for this tribe. They gave them some land and 10 million which wont go very far now days as this is probaly is a one time pay out.
5. The more i read this the more I think BS. The conservation drive is on 250m acres But they only give the Nations $10m to protect 10m acres. This sounds like a lot to us south of the border but the key words are "endless expanse of evergreen forests". Northern canada just goes on & on & on.
6. In fact they dont even speak of acres up there, its all in hectors.
7. Remember, dont believe anything these media & government pricks tell ya.
Cheers

reply to post by TheRedneck


Great post, Redneck. You beat me to the punch with your response. The amazing statistic is that this forest alone handles 22% of the free carbon.
Although they are banning logging, I would think that they have a way of clearing trees that need to be replace, but that is a great point.
Thank you for posting.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus

The amazing statistic is that this forest alone handles 22% of the free carbon.

Really? Not saying your wrong, that just seems surprising... can you post source?

I was of the understanding that an overwhelming majority of the O2 was produced by algae.

[edit on 31-10-2009 by unfndqlt]

Well here's another reason that I am proud to be Canadian. This is a great initiative by our government and the aboriginals who care for these places far more than we will ever understand.

Good on us and I hope they set aside even more in the future for these sorts of endeavours.

Ohh and way to stick it to him RedNeck!

~Keeper

reply to post by unfndqlt

Really? Not saying your wrong, that just seems surprising... can you post source?

Sure, it's the caption on the picture in the article in the OP.

reply to post by tothetenthpower

Well here's another reason that I am proud to be Canadian. This is a great initiative by our government and the aboriginals who care for these places far more than we will ever understand.

Good, you have every right to be proud. Canada is a great country, and so are its people. Sometimes, I wish our politicians would take a hint from some of the innovative things that Canada has done.

This is spectacular. I wonder if the united states can claim it's park system against carbon credits if the copenhagen treaties is signed.

On a side note someone mentioned a place for bigfoot, Bhutan has a yeti reserve.

I do support leaving areas pristine and untouched regardless of science on carbon and global warning. It just makes sense to give nature it's space.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus


yeah that's embarrassing... Thanks

Canada's boreal forest soaks up 22% of the carbon stored on the earth's land surface

I think I was correct though. This stat just concerns CO2 over land and not world wide...

reply to post by unfndqlt

I saw that. I would have liked to have seen a more complete set of statistics on that in the article, as you pointed out.

AWESOME! This is the kind of news that really gives me hope and makes me say hell yeah!

This whole global warming thing is crap. It's not about global warming it's about pollution and deforestation. Clean up our planet and keep our forests intact and the planet will be kind to us.

I'm a little torn on this. On the one hand, I like the kudo's we're getting and it's nice to hear positive things said about your country. On the other, I don't think 'Canada' should get the credit but rather the Premiers of the respective Provinces involved. 'Canada' could care less about the environment and we're among the top polluters in the world. Certain 'Provinces' seem to care deeply and do what they can to mitigate that lack of interest.

I guess what I'm saying is that the people of Canada are getting it done without the support of our federal politicians. Please try to remember this when we refuse to sign anything that might restrict the amount of crap we spew out from the tar sands.

[edit on 31-10-2009 by Duzey]

reply to post by TheRedneck


I'd prefer that pressure be kept up on the people who are doing the polluting, instead of a false impresison being created by fluffy news pieces.