Tar Sands Threaten World’s Largest Boreal Forest
Peter Lee is the Executive Director of加拿大全球森林观察, an independent organization that monitors the state of Canada’s forests and provides information on development activity and the resulting environmental impacts.
这是WRI博客系列的第一部分，《缩放》。该系列使用全球森林手表平台探索全球森林中的挑战和机遇。这篇文章探讨了焦油沙发开发中的繁荣如何影响加拿大的北方森林。
加拿大的北方森林是地球主要的生态宝藏之一。
然而该地区的森林are under threat来自伐木，水氢团和采矿。卫星数据揭示了对加拿大北方森林（Tar Sands Development）的主要新威胁。
According to data from全球森林观察, an online mapping platform that tracks tree cover loss and gain in near-real time, industrial development and forest fires in Canada’s tar sands region has cleared or degraded 775,500 hectares (almost two million acres) of boreal forest since the year 2000 (Map A). That’s an area more than six times the size of New York City. If the tar sands extraction boom continues, as many predict, we can expect forest loss to increase.
Mapping World’s Largest Boreal Forest
Only recently have we begun to understand how important boreal forests are to Canada — and to the world. WRI and partners — including加拿大全球森林观察- 从1990年代后期开始研究北方地区的森林覆盖变化。我们检查了1,000多个森林区域的卫星图像，绘制每条道路，石油和天然气井，矿山，农场和其他行动。我们发现加拿大拥有世界上最大的生态完整北方森林，占世界总数的54％。该地区延伸了超过5亿公顷（12.4亿英亩），大约是加利福尼亚州的14倍。
Canada’s boreal forests are also incredibly diverse, featuring mountain ranges; forested plains, bogs, and peatlands; coniferous and mixed forests; and millions of waterways. They support wildlife ranging from gray wolves to black bears to the endangered woodland caribou. They are also home and vital sources of livelihoods and culture for hundreds of First Nations communities, such as the Cree Nation. And because boreal forests捕获和存储二氧化碳的两倍作为热带森林，该地区在遏制气候变化方面起着至关重要的全球作用。必威官网是真的吗
受威胁的地区
According to Global Forest Watchdata, from 2000-2013, Canada lost more than 26 million hectares of forest, mainly in its boreal region. More than 20 percent of the boreal forest region (more than 150 million hectares) is now covered by industrial concessions for timber operations, hydrocarbon development, hydroelectric power reservoirs, and mineral extraction (Map B).
Forest loss is particularly high in the Alberta tar sands region, an area covering about 14 million hectares. Between 2000 and 2012, forest loss in the tar sands region—which is caused by bitumen (oil) extraction as well as logging and other industrial development—amounted to 5.5 percent of total land area, surpassing loss in Russia (2.2 percent), the United States (2.9 percent), Brazil (4.3 percent) and Canada as a whole (3.1 percent). And in the surface mineable area of the tar sands region – a 475,000 hectare area within the tar sands region where developers clear all vegetation from the land in order to extract bitumen— forest loss reached 20 percent (Map C).
And it’s not just forests that suffer from surface mining. For example,研究表明林地驯鹿避免了500米内的工业干扰区域，并且不会随着森林的碎片而越过清理区域，这使得焦油砂的生态足迹比物理足迹大得多。该地区超过1,250万公顷的土地遭受了栖息地的破坏，主要是由于焦油砂的开发。
在天空中的北方森林
Many predictthat Canada’s tar sands development will continue to accelerate. Direct forest loss caused by surface and sub-surface tar sands development isprojected to exceed在接下来的几十年中，有1,150,000公顷。研究表明，濒危物种的栖息地中断将是at least 10 times那个数量。
But there is hope: Global Forest Watch provides a whole new level of transparency for Canada’s boreal forests. We can produce maps of where companies are operating throughout the boreal region. Regularly updated satellite imagery at medium and fine resolutions allows us to see how forests are changing, spot where forest loss is occurring, and identify potential culprits. This data provides a consistent basis on which to quantify threats to the boreal ecosystem.
In short, NGOs and other forest stakeholders can use tools like GFW to assess what’s going on in the boreal forest, hold companies and government agencies accountable, and encourage the government and other decision-makers to enact better forest protections.
It’s too late to prevent the damage that’s already been done to Canada’s boreal forest. But with “eyes in the sky,” we may be better able to help protect and properly manage this critical ecosystem for future generations.