Top Canadian and International Scientists Form Advisory Panel To Protect Canada’s Boreal Forest
By: David Suzuki Foundation
Toronto, Canada – On the heels of increasingly disturbing reports about ecosystem and species losses worldwide, an interdisciplinary team of some of North America’s top scientists have volunteered their time to form an advisory body to work with the Pew Environment Group’s campaign to protect Canada’s Boreal Forest, one of the largest, intact forest/wetland ecosystems left on the planet..
The new 14-member panel includes scientists ranging from renowned conservation ecologists Peter Raven and Stuart Pimm to IPCC global warming experts Terry Root and Andrew Weaver to Canada’s top aquatic ecologist David Schindler and award-winning ethnobotanist Nancy Turner. The panel’s membership is balanced between Canadian and international experts.
Members of the Science Panel stress that many previous conservation strategies focused on small tropical “hotspots” of species diversity or heavily impacted habitats. This approach overlooks the equally important need to preserve the healthiest remaining strongholds of nature, like Canada’s Boreal Forest. Previous global goals to protect 10% of the world’s ecosystems, espoused by certain groups, increasingly appear inadequate to meet global conservation objectives. These scientists believe the comprehensive approach to conserving the whole ecosystem, outlined in the Boreal Framework, is better suited to areas that are not yet substantially degraded by development.
Eight years ago the Pew Environment Group identified Canada’s Boreal as one of the world’s top conservation priorities and launched a broadly-based, large-scale initiative to protect it. Working with Canadian governments, First Nations (aboriginal governments in Canada), industries and conservation groups, Pew’s International Boreal Conservation Campaign has been promoting a comprehensive conservation and development plan, called the Canadian Boreal Conservation Framework (Boreal Framework).
The new science panel is an outgrowth of an effort by 1500 scientists worldwide in 2007 supporting the Boreal Framework. In order to do more, the 14 scientists who make up the new panel will conduct an interdisciplinary assessment linking disparate sources of information into a larger whole. They also hope to counsel governments, aboriginal communities, industries, environmental groups and other stakeholders as critical planning and development decisions are made in coming years.
Dr. Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology, Nicholas School of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Duke University, suggests, “We must act as soon as possible to protect the places like Canada’s Boreal, where nature still thrives. Canada has a unique opportunity to safeguard this forest before it’s too late.”
Dr. Root, a lead author for the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change, which was awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, says, “Time is of the essence. As development and climate change impacts grow, we must think bigger. We must change how we view the world’s last remaining intact forest ecosystems, like Canada’s Boreal Forest, especially if we consider the impact climate change will have on smaller, less resilient parks and protected areas.”
Steve Kallick, Director of the Pew Environment Group’s Boreal Campaign, says, “As our world looks to strike the right balance between jobs and nature, between the short and long view, and we focus on the incredible opportunity presented in Canada’s Boreal Forest, we need the advice and counsel of experts like these to guide us. Thanks to these distinguished scholars, we will have the benefit of the best available science to solve one of the great environmental challenges of the 21st Century, the conservation and proper development of Canada’s Boreal Forest.”
To learn more about the International Boreal Science Panel and its projects, visit (http://www.interboreal.org/).
MEDIA AVAILABILITY ON NOVEMBER 20TH
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PEW ENVIRONMENT GROUP
Dr. Joshua Reichert, Managing Director of the Pew Environment Group, 215-575-4816
Steve Kallick, Director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ International Boreal Conservation Campaign, 206-327, 1184, skallick@pewtrusts.org.
SCIENCE PANEL MEMBERS
Dr. Terry Root, Stanford University, an IPCC author, was the lead scientist presenting this recommendation to the Canadian government, (650) 736-1296, troot@stanford.edu.
Dr. Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Chair of Conservation Ecology, Duke University, 646-489-5481, StuartPimm@aol.com
Dr. Jeremy Kerr, Canadian Facility for Ecoinformatics Research (CFER), University of Ottawa, Jeremy.kerr@uottawa.ca, (613)562-5800 x. 4577.
Quebec Contact:
Pascal Badiou, Ducks Unlimited Canada and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environment and Geography at the University of Manitoba. Office: (204) 467-3277; Email: p_badiou@ducks.ca
Dr. Marcel Darveau, Head, Boreal Research and Conservation, Quebec, Ducks Unlimited Canada, 418-623-1650, ext. 26
Newfoundland Contact
Dr. John Jacobs, Departments of Geography and Environmental Science at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s. Office : (709) 737-8194, Home: 709.738.3147; Email: jjacobs@mun.ca
BC Contacts
Nancy Turner, Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria , Victoria, British Columbia.
Office: (250) 721-6124, Cell: 250-384-5568; Email: nturner@uvic.ca
Dr. Faisal Moola, PhD, Director of Science, David Suzuki Foundation, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Office: (604) 732-4228, ext 261. Email: fmoola@davidsuzuki.org
Additional Background:
Panel Announcement Page with Maps, Images, Links, Supporting Articles, and Reports
http://www.interboreal.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111&Itemid=208
General Information on Canada’s Boreal Forest
http://www.interboreal.org
Recent Reports on Ecosystems and Species
http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/article.aspx?id=58
source: David Suzuki Foundation
