Boreal Forest

Rich in Natural Resources

The boreal forest consists of mainly coniferous tree species, including fir, spruce, and tamarack. There are also deciduous tree species, such as trembling aspen and poplar, and large expanses of peat bog, especially in the northern latitudes. Sizeable herds of woodland caribou (reindeer in Eurasia) migrate throughout the boreal forest, as do large populations of black bears, grizzly bears, and timber wolves. Recent estimates suggest that in North America alone, over 4 billion migratory landbirds inhabit the boreal forest at the height of the summer breeding season. Topographically, the boreal forest varies from flat, lowland expanses in central and northern Canada and the Siberian lowland, to mountainous regions in western Canada and west-central Russia.

The boreal forest is among the world's most important sources of natural resources, and for this reason has become an object of environmental concern over the last few decades. Since roughly the early 1990s, environmental and conservation organizations have argued that excessive industrial resource extraction throughout the boreal forest is having a detrimental effect on the forest's capacity [Page 154]to deliver environmental services such as biodiversity, potable water and carbon storage. In 1997, these concerns were given additional gravitas when the World Resources Institute declared that the boreal forest comprises 50 percent of the world's remaining “frontier forest” and urged governments, civil society and industry to collectively halt the pace of boreal forest destruction. Subsequently, many North American and European conservation organizations began drawing public attention to the boreal forest through media campaigns and consensus-building activities. Similarly, many indigenous peoples' groups—including the Sámi people, the Lubicon Cree, James Bay Cree, and Deh Cho First Nations—have argued that excessive resource extraction in the boreal forest poses a significant threat to their cultural survival, since such activities are frequently carried out on their traditional territories and often infringe on their legal rights.

One noteworthy feature of boreal forest politics is that the forest is represented politically in different terms depending on the region in question. In Canada, many conservation groups recognize the importance of the Canadian boreal forest's carbon storage capacity, echoing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which says that the global boreal forest contains 25 percent of the world's terrestrial carbon. They also place heavy emphasis on the protection of mammalian and avian biodiversity. In seeking some degree of boreal forest conservation, these groups have embraced an anthropocentric ideology that places an economic value on the ecosystem goods and services provided by the boreal forest. According to one recent estimate, the total value of ecosystem goods and services supplied by Canada's boreal forest in 2002 was $93.2 billion, while the total value of carbon stored in the boreal forest was valued at $3.7 trillion. These groups hope that policymakers will factor these figures into long-term land use planning decisions that affect the boreal forest, and as such, contribute to ecologically benign future development. In Canada, this approach to boreal forest conservation has resulted in an environmental political culture that emphasizes consensus building among numerous stakeholder groups. The Canadian Boreal Initiative, for instance, is currently brokering a social consensus that brings together First Nations, conservation groups and industry to negotiate a sustainable future for the boreal forest.

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