Canada: Overview

With almost 10 million square kilometers and a population of just over 30 million people (3.1 residents per square kilometer), Canada has one of the lowest population densities in the world. Only a few countries, such as Iceland and Australia, have lower population densities.

Canada contains over a third of the world’s boreal forest, one fifth of the world’s temperate rainforest, and a tenth of the total global forest cover. Canada has the second major repository of northern forests, after Russia. Canada’s boreal forest is one of the three largest ‘frontier forests’ remaining on the planet. The other two are in Russia and Brazil. Canada’s relatively undisturbed forest areas are sufficiently large to maintain all of their native biodiversity.

Canadians highly value their forests and freshwaters. Forests comprise 45% and freshwaters comprise 9% of Canada’s area. The timber productive forestland totals almost 2.5 million square kilometers, or about one quarter of Canada’s land area. Logging is the dominant activity in Canada’s forests and a key sector in Canada’s economy: the forest industry generated over $68 billion in sales and $11 billion in wages in 1996.

However, Canada maintains its lead as the world’s biggest timber exporter through logging of frontier forests and through clearcutting, with both accounting for approximately 90% of all logging activity. Canada’s forests are being rapidly opened up for extraction of timber, energy and mineral resources. The most diverse and productive forest ecosystems have undergone widespread fragmentation by roads and other access routes and have the bulk of their area under logging tenures. Less than 8% of Canada’s forests are fully protected. Development activities increasingly extend into Canada’s northernmost forests, which have fragile soils and slow growing conditions. Over 60% of tenured forestlands face severe productivity limitations or moderate limitations. Cumulative impacts with industrial uses are escalating. For example, most of the forests of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin have been severely fragmented by linear disturbances, usually caused by the oil and gas industry.

Access to information about Canada’s forests has been difficult historically. Global Forest Watch, through its affiliate Global Forest Watch Canada, works with local organizations and partners throughout Canada to collect and distribute information on forest development. Government oversight of forest developments have declined in Canada. For example, the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) has experienced dramatic reductions in budget and staff in recent years. Between 1995 and 1998, the annual operating budget of the CFS was reduced from $219 million to $93 million.

Global Forest Watch increases the public’s access to information on forests and forest development. This work improves transparency and accountability in forest management decisions and helps ensure better management of forest resources.

Global Forest Watch Canada published its first report in 2000: Canada’s Forests At A Crossroads - An Assessment in the Year 2000, which provides maps and data on forests and forest developments. This report has been published in both French and English. New projects being undertaken by Global Forest Watch Canada include updating forest tenures, assessing Aboriginal benefits from the forests of Canada, and auditing forest development activities on Canada’s freshwater riparian areas.

Our products, and especially this website, aim at increasing the transparency of information available on forests. Using our Data Warehouse you can download, and manipulate for your own analyses, the geographical data (GIS layers) we possess. You can also create your own maps using our Interactive Map Server and send us your comments.