[Mb-civic] CBC News - GROUP PLACES DOLLAR VALUE ON ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF CANADA'S FOREST

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GROUP PLACES DOLLAR VALUE ON ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS OF CANADA'S FOREST
WebPosted Fri Nov 25 09:49:16 2005

---Canada's boreal forest provides clean water and a stable climate worth
billions of dollars, says a report released Friday.

The document estimates the annual value the forest creates through
purifying water, regulating climate and generating oxygen is about $93.2
billion. That's twice the total market value of forestry, hydro and oil
and natural gas activity, says the report, commissioned by the Canadian
Boreal Initiative.

"Ignoring the value of Canada's boreal wealth to the well-being of the
nation is akin to Exxon Mobil ignoring the volume of oil and gas reserves
and annual production in its annual report," says the report.

David Schindler, a professor of ecology at the University of Alberta, who
was a consultant on the report, hopes putting a dollar value on the
boreal forest will help convince politicians and the public that it's
worth protecting.

"It is indeed time to broaden our understanding of the true value of
globally important forests such as the boreal," he said in a statement on
the group's website.

"Failure to do so not only ensures continued ecosystem degradation, but
the accelerating impoverishment of human societies, ours included."

Canada's boreal region, a broad green belt across the centre of the
country from Newfoundland to the Yukon, is home to more than 90 per cent
of the country's remaining large intact forests and more than four
million people. Pine, spruce, aspen and poplar trees dominate its
forests. Thirty per cent of it is covered by wetlands, an estimated 1.5
million lakes and some of the country's largest river systems.

The release of the report comes only days before a United Nations climate
change conference in Montreal.

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