This vast region harbors life found in few other places on the planet and resources that once seemed infinite.
But at this moment, the future of these 1.3 billion acres of forests, wetlands and lakes is uncertain due to the pressures of growing development. An irreplaceable global treasure, Canada’s Boreal Forest:
- Captures and stores 208 billion tons of carbon — 11 percent of the world’s total;
- Serves as the spring nursery for more than 3 billion migrating birds and provides vital habitat for wildlife like threatened woodland caribou, moose, wolves and bears; and
- Is home to more than 2.5 million people, many of them from Indigenous communities who have lived here for millennia. The forest is not only their home, but the source of their subsistence, livelihoods and culture.
Meeting Challenges in Canada's Boreal Forest
To protect this vital landscape, The Nature Conservancy has joined forces with a broad coalition of Indigenous peoples, industries, governments and NGOs through the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA). The largest agreement of its kind anywhere in the world, the CBFA seeks to create a win-win for people and nature across 178 million acres of boreal forest. As a CBFA partner, we are:
- Providing science and expertise to help shape national and regional conservation plans;
- Partnering with Indigenous communities to engage them in the conservation planning process; and
- Collaborating with local communities, industries, governments and NGOs on-the-ground in Manitoba, our current focus area, to conserve millions of acres of boreal forest. See how we're working with a Cree Community in Manitoba to document traditional natural resource management.
The Boreal Forest represents an opportunity for large-scale conservation unimaginable anywhere else in the world. Until recently, the region’s vast and remote locations buffered it from pressures that have degraded other forests around the globe. Now, growing demand for resources such as timber, hydroelectric power and minerals is chipping away at the boreal wilderness. Your support will help us take action today to conserve this critically important landscape for the people and wildlife that depend on it.