CPAWS Demands That Canada Make our Forests Count!

CPAWs, Canadian Parks and Wildlife Soceity, is working to convince Canada and other developed countries to make forest conservation a major topic at the next international climate change agreement. 

 

Their cause has just been strengthened by the report, The Carbon the World Forgot, released by the Canadian Boreal Initiative.  This report identifies that North America’s boreal forests are one of the most significant carbon sinks in the world, storing 22% of all carbon on the earth’s surface, this is twice as much as tropical rainforests.  The significance of these forests as a carbon sink had been greatly under estimated in the past.

 

CPAWs hopes that this report will persuade Canada to take a leading role in climate change talks at Copenhagen in December.  Canada has yet to speak out on behalf of developed countries for the need to develop new rules to protect from deforestation in mitigating climate change.

 

So far Canada has measured its performance in climate change against a projected business as usual scenario.  It is difficult to demonstrate that this approach has environmental integrity.  CPAWs is still hoping that Canada will step up and adopt measures that will result in real emissions reductions.  This would include protecting the boreal forests.  To see what you can do, check out CPAW's Make Forests Count campaign.