Keep Our Boreal As A Sink
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The document presents a plan to protect Canada's boreal forest through regulations, certification standards, public awareness campaigns, and financial incentives. It discusses the boreal forest's role as a carbon sink and its importance to Canada's economy and climate regulation. Recommendations include developing regulations and certification for forestry companies, educating Canadians on the forest's value, and providing tax credits to companies that follow sustainable harvesting practices. The goal is to mitigate climate change by conserving the boreal forest for future generations.
Keep Our Boreal As A Sink
- 1. Protecting Canada’s Boreal Forest a plan for the mitigation of climate change Presented by Dean McKeown
- 2. The boreal what? • Canada’s largest biome or environmental community, 1.2 billion acres of forest • Home to 30% of the world forests • Occupies 35 % of the total Canadian land area • 77% of Canada’s total forest land • One of the last, large intact forest ecosystem
- 3. Boreal Forest as GHG Source?
- 6. Whether and how to develop a forestry management program to protect the boreal forest...
- 7. Recommendations • develop regulations and a certification standard for companies doing business in the boreal forest • develop a public awareness campaign to educate Canadians on the importance of the boreal forest as a carbon sink • provide companies with a financial incentive to operate in a boreal-friendly manner
- 8. Regulation and Certification • Forest Stewardship Program • collaborate with aboriginal stakeholders, provincial and territorial governments and industrial partners • encourage these partners to promote the certification standards to encourage market growth for boreal-friendly products
- 9. Public Awareness • public support is necessary to encourage the consumer purchase of boreal-friendly products • greater demand will lead to greater supply as companies continue to innovate and new suppliers enter the market
- 10. Financial Incentives • Minister of Finance will provide a 15% transitional credit for 5 years (2013- 2018) • Companies must prove they are following accredited harvesting standards • each company can receive a maximum of $2 million in tax credits per year
- 11. Certification Program • companies will pay a certification fee to gain accreditation • monies raised will be used to finance the awareness program and an audit of the harvesting techniques to ensure compliance
- 12. Mitigating Climate Change • Plays a vital role in regulating the climate and diminishing the effect of global warming • It has been called the “great lung of North America” breathing in carbon dioxide and exhaling oxygen”(Manitoba Wetlands, 2012) • Wetlands and peatlands store an estimated 147 billion tonnes of carbon, 25 years of man made emissions • The delta of the Mackenzie River alone stores 40 billion tonnes • Input of fresh water from the boreal to the Arctic and other northern seas is critical to forming sea ice, which cools the atmosphere and provides the basis for much of Arctic marine biodiversity
- 13. Canada’s Economic Future • Forest, mineral and energy contributes 13% to GDP • Provides more than 900, 000 jobs • $40 billion a year in wood products • The combined value of the numerous environmental, health and social benefits of the boreal forest worth an estimated $700 billion
- 14. This is Our Forest • Unlike oil and potash, our boreal forest is a renewable resource • BUT only if we act NOW! • This resource must be managed to be renewed • Insignificant expenses today will lead to significant gains for Canadians from sea to sea to sea
- 15. Please save our boreal forest, our kids are counting on us to make the right decisions today.