          
DID YOU KNOW...The Boreal is home to large populations of wolves, bears, moose and a number of smaller animals |
Media CentrePress Releases2005Canada's Real Bottom Line -- New Study Puts Multi-Million Dollar Values on Boreal Ecosystem ServicesReport Calls Canada's Boreal Region Carbon Bank Account Worth $3.7 Trillion November 25, 2005 - Ottawa In a new take on Canada's national accounts, research by the Pembina Institute for the Canadian Boreal Initiative puts the value of ecosystem services like water filtration and carbon storage at roughly 2.5 times greater than the net market value of forestry, hydro, mining, and oil and gas extraction in Canada's Boreal region. The report argues that the degradation of natural ecosystems worldwide is at least in part because natural capital values aren't taken into account in land use decisions around the globe, noting these values aren't part of the universal international wealth indicator - Gross Domestic Product. "We are only just beginning to understand the true value of these services, including flood control, water filtration, climate regulation, and even pest control," said CBI Director Cathy Wilkinson. "We have the opportunity to get it right in Canada's boreal, sustaining its natural capital and ecosystem services, while building other forms of wealth and maintaining community and cultural values." On the eve of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal, the report estimates the value of the 67 billion tons of carbon stored in the trees and peatlands of Canada's Boreal region at $3.7 trillion, and the annual value of carbon sequestration by the region at $1.85 billion. "It is indeed time to broaden our understanding of the true "value" of globally important forests such as the boreal," said Dr. David Schindler, Professor of Ecology at the University of Alberta. "Failure to do so not only ensures continued ecosystem degradation, but the accelerating impoverishment of human societies, ours included." "Our hope is that the Boreal Ecosystem Wealth Accounting System (BEWAS) becomes an international benchmark and an important tool for measuring the conditions and economic values of Canada's ecosystems, in general, and the Boreal region in particular," said Mark Winfield, Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development. "An understanding of the Boreal region's true value is essential to addressing important questions about how this natural heritage asset can continue to contribute to national and international well-being for generations to come," said Mark Anielski, ecological economist and report co-author. "For Aborginal people, it has always been paramount that we take care of the land that takes care of us - the land, the air and the resources on it. It has not always been easy to have people understand the true total value of what it is that the land provides to us," said Stephen Kakfwi, former Premier of the Northwest Territories. "Perhaps now with this report, it will be easier for us to begin to understand and have discussions about why we have to be responsible and not think only in terms of resource extraction and development but in terms of what damage and cost we inflict on ourselves and on the land's resources in our quest for progress and development". Additional background and a copy of the study are available at www.borealcanada.ca. -30- For more information: |
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