Innovation Anthology #91: Principal Investigator
While stopping deforestation in the tropics is key to mitigating climate change, protecting the boreal forest is even more important.
Maps illustrating this perspective were released at the United Nations conference on climate change in Bali over the weekend.
The three maps show that Canada’s boreal forest stores 27 years worth of global carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
Groups involved in the mapping initiative include Ducks Unlimited Canada, Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, the Canadian Boreal Initiative, Global Forest Watch Canada, and the Pew Environment Group.
Half of the worlds remaining original forests stretch across Canada, Alaska, Russia and Scandinavia. This makes the boreal forest the largest land reservoir of carbon.
With its peatlands, permafrost, and carbon rich soils, the boreal forest houses 22 percent of the total carbon stored on the planet’s land surface. And almost 90 percent of the organic carbon found in Canadian soils occurs in the boreal and tundra ecosystems.
That’s why world renowned water and climate expert Dr. David Schindler calls Canada’s boreal forest a bank vault, one containing one of the worlds most valuable and most influential resources for impacting climate change.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Gerlinde Metz, PhD,
Canadian Centre for Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, gerlinde.metz@uleth.ca
Sponsor
Program Date: 2007-12-11