For 3 Years Straight, Russia Loses Forest Area Equivalent To Size Of Switzerland

Canada and Russia have lost an alarming number of trees in recent years, compromising the ecologically rich and carbon-sequestering boreal forests that are native to the regions, according to a new report.

The report, published Thursday by the World Resources Institute (WRI), found that the world’s boreal region has shown the steepest decline in forest cover between 2011 and 2013, with Russia — the country home to the world’s largest area of tree cover — losing an average of 16,600 square miles of tree cover every year. That’s an area, the report points out, that’s larger than Switzerland.

Boreal forests serve as major carbon sinks, so losing the forests is bad news for climate change — though, as the report notes, the light-reflecting land that’s left after forests are removed complicates the climate impact a bit.



Most of the tree loss in Canada and Russia can be attributed to forest fires, which the report notes are expected to occur more frequently and become more intense as the climate warms. Nigel Sizer, global director of WRI’s Forests Program, told ThinkProgress that the report didn’t analyze what percentage of the fires that caused the deforestation could be linked to human activity and what percentage couldn’t, but he did say that an increase in fires, including in the northern latitudes, was in line with climate modelling. He also said that hotter, more intense fires could have an impact on the forests ecologically. Though forests are adapted to deal with — and even thrive after — occasional wildfires, hotter fires could affect the regeneration of trees and could lead to changes in species abundance.

EDIT

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/02/3641546/wri-forests-report-canada-russia-deforestation/