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THE STATE OF THE WORLD'S FORESTS
Around the world, forests are being severely impacted by human activities. The world's northern forests are on the precipice of major change; change that could threaten the daily benefits they provide for all life on earth.
A significant loss of forests around the world is amply documented in previous reports by World Resource Institute (WRI), the parent of Global Forest Watch Canada. Their 1997 report The Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and Economies on the Edge shows that almost half of the Earth's original forests have disappeared. Much of this loss has happened in the last few decades. The forests have disappeared for various reasons including clearing for agriculture, timber harvesting, mining, and other human activities.
NOTE: WRI defines frontier forests as forests that are relatively undisturbed and big enough to maintain all of their biodiversity, including viable populations of the wide range of species associated with each forest type.
While just over half of the world's forests remain, most of these have been heavily altered by people and bear little resemblance to once-pristine forests. According to WRI's assessment just 22 percent of Earth's original forest remains in large, relatively natural ecosystems. Nearly half of that is boreal forest.
The world's boreal forests have been less disturbed than other forest types because of long winters and poor soils that make it difficult to farm. Small and slow growing trees have made the boreal ecosystems unattractive to commercial loggers. Modern technology and wood demands are beginning to change this picture however, as loggers set their sights on forests further and further north.
The WRI study suggests that commercial logging poses the greatest danger to Earth's last remaining intact forests by changing structure and composition of the forest, opening the forests up to a new array of human activities, removing important natural disturbances such as fire, and so on. Other commercial activities such as energy development and mining also take their toll by spewing pollution into the environment and bringing new roads and settlements that impact natural ecosystems. Hydroelectric dams on rivers flood millions of hectares of forest and disrupt freshwater ecosystems. Agriculture clears forests for crops and pasture.
WRI Reference: The Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and Economies on the Edge. What is the Status of the World's Remaining Large, Natural Forest Ecosystems? Dirk Bryant, Daniel Nielsen and Laura Tangley. 1997. World Resources Institute.
State of Canada's Boreal Forest
State of Saskatchewan's Boreal Forest
LEARN MORE:
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| About Forests |
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| The Boreal Forest: Canada's Global Opportunity |
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| Forest Threats & Solutions |
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| The impacts of human developments in the forest. |
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| Forest Ecology |
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| Saskatchewan's forests and the wildlife in them. |
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| Birds in the Boreal Forest |
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| Species of songbirds are declining in our boreal forest. |
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| Links |
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| Visit our boreal forest links. |
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