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Opinion: How much primary forest does Canada have?

The environmental media is full of grim warnings on how much primary forest the world is losing and its impact on biodiversity and our ability to reduce GHG emissions. But what exactly is primary forest, and how much does Canada have?

There is worldwide agreement on four key aspects of primary forest: naturally generated (not planted by man); comprises native (not introduced) tree species; no visible indications of human activities; ecological processes not significantly disturbed.

The last two require some clarification because data to support them is sometimes tenuous or does not exist, or the extent of their impact is debateable or disputed.

According to the UN FAO, primary forest exists if there has been no known significant human intervention or “the last significant human intervention was long enough ago to have allowed the natural species composition and processes to have become re-established.”

The FAO estimates that about one-third of the world’s forests can be considered primary. More than half of these forests are found in Brazil, Canada and Russia. 

So how much primary forest does Canada have? A simple enough question, but in reality, a much harder one to answer. Academic agreement on a definition is one thing, but being able to actually measure primary forest is something else. The FAO freely acknowledges the challenge: “most countries use proxies based on land use and/or land cover to extrapolate data on primary forest, and these proxies vary.”   

Canada does not have any original data specifically on primary forest so it relies on estimates based on extrapolations from multiple sources and methodologies, after using a combination of remote sensing from satellites, thousands of photo plots, and estimates by foresters on the ground.

Perhaps the easiest part of this highly complicated process is to assess Canada’s unmanaged forest, much of it remote and inaccessible and left in a wilderness state. What might also be relatively easy to measure is Canada’s legally protected forest. Human activities like harvesting, mining, and hydro-electric development are banned in nearly 95 per cent of it.

The most difficult area to estimate for primary forest is what is called Canada’s managed forest (48 per cent of the total, according to an industry study.) Managed forest does not mean harvested. This is forest land under a provincial or territorial government forest management plan using the science of forestry. But there’s a glitch here because the federal government uses a broader definition of managed forest. For carbon-reporting purposes, it includes both formal protected areas, plus hectares under fire suppression plans, and long-term forest management. Confusing!

And now, time for the answer or at least a best guestimate. Using proxy indicators such as forest land protection areas and proximity to human settlement and access (mainly through roads), the NRCan team reporting Canada’s performance for the FAO’s latest report came up with a total: 205.1 million hectares. That translates into 59 per cent of Canada’s forest lands meeting the UN definition of primary forest in 2020, a pretty impressive number. 

It also raises all sorts of other questions. There is an underlying assumption that primary forest necessarily provides greater benefits than other forests. Many forest scientists contest this assertion, arguing that eco-system-based management practices can emulate natural disturbance regimes and provide a mosaic of habitats with a natural range of variability. And in terms of carbon sequestration, research suggests that conservation is not always the optimal strategy, particularly where climate change is increasing wildfire risk.  

Clearly, there is a need to improve the gathering of data on our forests. How best can Canada achieve its goal of conserving 30 per cent of its lands and waters by 2030? Will Canada ever stop harvesting trees from primary forests? Should it? And, how does Canada avoid trade barriers being placed on wood and pulp sourced from its primary forests by countries that themselves have already removed most of their own primary forests? Some big questions there!

John Mullinder is the author of Little Green Lies and Other BS: From “Ancient” Forests to “Zero: Waste, and Deforestation in Canada and Other Fake News. A former TV reporter in his native New Zealand and foreign correspondent for Maclean’s magazine and Financial Post, he ran Canada’s Paper & Paperboard Packaging Environmental Council for 30 years. www.johnmullinder.ca