About Canada's Boreal

Quebec

Quebec’s Boreal Forest:

• is 1.2 million km2 (297 million acres) in size – twice the size of France.1
• comprises 21% of Canada’s Boreal Forest.
• is home to more than 30 aboriginal communities representing 9 aboriginal cultures.2
• stores 31 billion tonnes of carbon in its soils, peat and forests – an amount equivalent to 158 years of Canada’s annual carbon emissions.3
• is the breeding ground for 300 to 500 million birds of 180 species, including threatened species like Harlequin Duck, Barrow’s Goldeneye, Canada Warbler and Olive-sided Flycatcher.
• supports more than 25% of Canada’s woodland caribou and two significant herds of barren ground caribou.4
• features 900,000 km2 of intact forest, peatland, and wetland habitat free from industrial development, making up 75% of the province’s boreal region.5
• holds 9 of 35 (25%) of North America’s most unfragmented and pristine river systems and most of North America’s healthiest Atlantic salmon runs.6

 

1. Canadian Boreal Initiative. 2003. Canada’s Boreal Region.
2. Aboriginal Canada Portal (www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca), and Global Forest Watch.
3. Tarnocai, C. and Lacelle, B. 1996. Soil Organic Carbon Digital Database of Canada. Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Center, Research Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Canada.
4. The CircumArtic Rangifer Monitoring & Assessment Network. Accessed August, 2009. www.carmanetwork.com
5. Global Forest Watch Canada. 2009. Canada’s Forest Landscape Fragments: A Second Approximation.
6. Benke, A., and Cushing, C. Rivers of North America. 2005.