Categories: Green

The Taiga

The Taiga, or Boreal Forest, is the single largest terrestrial biome on the planet and one of the most impactive. Every year when the forest awakens to the relative warmth of Spring, it converts billions upon billions of tons of carbon dioxide into oxygen, measurably altering the composition of gases that comprise the planet’s atmosphere. The Boreal Forest is, quite literally, a breath of fresh air.

Stretching from Siberia to Sweden, to Alaska and Canada, this circumpolar forest contains nearly a third of the Earth’s trees, more than all the world’s rain forests combined. Yet unlike the rain forests, which have been routinely victimized in an effort to meet the ever-increasing demand for wood and agricultural products, the Taiga has been left relatively in tact… until now.

Comprised almost entirely of coniferous trees, the Taiga exists in one of the most unforgiving climates in the world; surrounding the Arctic tundra like a vast army of evergreen sentinels. Evergreens are well suited to the cold with small, needle-like leaves which shed snow easily and retain moisture well. These are important considerations in a climate dominated by Arctic air and winters that can last up to seven months. It is perhaps due to the extreme nature of the environment that the Taiga has, for the most part, dodged the heavy hand of human exploitation, but it is a double-edged sword.

Due to its unique geographic location the Taiga receives very little direct sunlight, limiting its growing season to only one month per year. The average annual precipitation in the forest is between 12 and 30 inches, much of which comes in the form of snow. Because of its truncated growing season, limited rainfall and nutrient-poor soil, trees in the Taiga can take up to fifty years to grow beyond saplings. Add to this recent plagues of parasitic insects which have left the forest vulnerable to fire and you begin to understand the plight of the Taiga.

In addition to the many hardships that Mother Nature imposes, the Taiga now faces an even more dire threat. After the economic collapse of the former Soviet Union, the newly formed Russian government targeted its forests as a ready-made resource to aid in its recovery; selling off hundreds of thousands of acres to foreign investors and logging companies. Prior to the recently initiated Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement less than eight percent of the Canadian Taiga was protected from development and more than half has been allocated for cutting. Due to fires, clear-cut and pulp logging, chemical contaminants and clearing for agricultural use, the Taiga now suffers more change and habitat loss than any other biome on Earth.

The long-term costs of deforesting the Taiga are difficult to assess, but one thing is certain. Because of the unique climatic conditions within the Taiga, cleared forest area will take centuries to recover, a fact that should give pause to those who seek to destroy it. The impact this forest has upon the atmosphere is significant, providing essential conversion of greenhouse gases into breathable air.

Concern about the future of the Boreal Forest has inspired conservationists to lobby for its protection. Greenpeace International, along with eight other environmental groups, recently announced the signing of The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement which covers 72 million hectares of Boreal Forest and includes a moratorium on the logging of some 28 million more.

While this landmark agreement goes a long way toward protecting the Taiga, there is still more work to be done. Intense logging of the Northern forests of Siberia continue at an alarming rate and large tracts of the Canadian Taiga remain at risk. The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Manitoba, for instance, have slated a combined total of more than 350,000 square kilometers of the Northern forest for logging over the next 60 years and the Northern reaches of the Taiga now provide 60% of the world’s industrial roundwood.

For more information on the Taiga and to learn how you can help, visit the Taiga Rescue Network.