Boreal forests in wealthy countries being rapidly destroyed
mongabay.comAugust 12, 2009
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Assessing the status of the boreal forest that stretches across Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia, Corey Bradshaw and colleagues found that less than 10 percent is protected, while about 60 percent is fragmented or degraded. The situation is the worst in Russia, which has "suffered the greatest decline in the last few decades compared to other boreal countries," writes Bradshaw on his blog Conservation Bytes, adding that some 22 million hectares of Russian boreal forest burned in 2002 and 2003. Forests are also dying from outbreaks of pine mountain beetles, a consequence of warming temperatures. More than 13 million hectares of forest in western Canada have been affected in recent years.
 Forest near Ketchikan |
While damage from logging and disease is considerable, fire is the biggest threat to boreal forests. Without controlling fire, the authors conclude there will be little chance of saving these important ecosystems.
Bradshaw, CJA, IG Warkentin, NS Sodhi. 2009. Urgent preservation of boreal carbon stocks and biodiversity. Trends in Ecology and Evolution DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2009.03.019
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