Together with the Conservation Biology Institute and other partners, GFWC launched a new website "to provide objective, high-quality data and information to support North American boreal conservation and management." The Centre is a repository for mapped information on the biological and ecological characteristics and human use of a forest that carpets more than half of Canada's land surface and reaches into much of Alaska and into Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota.

On GFWC's Data Warehouse page, you can download digital (GIS) data layers that are relevant to the issues surrounding Canada's forests.

GFWC, with the help of the Sierra Club of Canada, has made available a number forest management/development plans from a few Canadian provinces. These plans identify areas for future logging and associated future developments such as road building.

This research paper determines whether physical and ecological changes that result from tar sands industrial activities are detectable. The findings conclude that: present levels of some contaminants pose an ecosystem or human health risk, the effects of which deserve immediate and systematic study; projected tripling of tar sands activities over the next decade may result in unacceptably large and unforeseen impacts to biodiversity, ecosystem function, and public health, and; the attention of the world's scientific community is urgently needed. (No downloads page; clicking on the image to the left is a direct link to the 0.4 MB PDF.)

A report that provides estimates of land use changes, biological carbon content and consequent potential greenhouse emissions due to existing and future surface mining and in situ extraction of bitumen in Alberta, Canada. The paper reveals that significant amounts of greenhouse gases are emitted through the disturbance and/or removal of biocarbon (trees, shrubs, peats), which overlay Alberta's oil sands. These emissions have not previously been measured nor reported by governments and industry.

GFWC prepared this report under the direction of five environmental organizations, in support of the Government of Alberta's direction in the Terms of Reference for the Regional Advisory Council of the Lower Athabasca Plan in Alberta. The report records the methods used to identify sites of high conservation priority and presents a map of conservation priority areas in the Lower Athabasca land-use planning region. (No downloads page; clicking on the image to the left is a direct link to the 17.5 MB PDF.)

A report of Nova Scotia's forest landscapes that reveals the dramatic pace and scale of recent human-caused changes due to industrial activities in recent decades. GFWC examined old and new satellite images for almost the entire area of Nova Scotia and combined what we saw with existing information in order to map the industrial-caused changes, primarily logging, that have occurred throughout much of the province, from approximately 1990-2007. The resulting maps and analyses paint a stark picture of industry's impacts.

We published this atlas in the hope that it will assist Albertans in their efforts to sustainably manage their important forest legacy; its production was triggered by the Alberta Government's release of Alberta's Land-use Framework in December 2008. Our atlas of Alberta's last great intact forest landscapes reveals a dramatic reduction in large blocks of Alberta's natural boreal forest landscapes due to the expansion of industrial activities in recent decades. Part I of the atlas provides context and maps of Alberta's intact forest landscapes; Part II focuses on the threats to these forests.

The Ontario Greenbelt presents both opportunities and challenges for managing growth and retaining natural areas and key agricultural production lands. This report contributed to a larger project (by the David Suzuki Foundation and the Greenbelt foundation) around analyzing key key ecosystem values in Ontario's Greenbelt.

A results summary for a survey of human disturbances in BC's Inland Temperate Rainforest. The study was undertaken using satellite imagery for the approximate period of 1989 to 2001. This is an interim report as we still aim to perform additional verification of the results.

This stage of GFWC's "Where's the Best of What's Left?" project involved identifying all disturbances to Ontario's Boreal that were caused by industry in the 1990s and early 2000s. The potential impacts of these disturbances on woodland caribou habitat were also considered in this analysis.

The summary results of an up-to-date survey of human disturbances in the Pascagama region of the Boreal region in Québec, which reveals many recent impacts caused by logging and associated roads. The study was undertaken using satellite imagery over the period of 1990 to 2006.
Published in English and French!

This report, GIS data, maps, etc. share the interim results of the second stage of our change analysis project. Satellite images from different dates (~1990 and ~2000) for the Boreal Plains Ecozone in Saskatchewan and Manitoba were compared using a differencing algorithm so that we could assess where recent forest disturbances have occurred.

A report, maps, data, and photos regarding the most comprehensive survey to date of Canada's remaining wild forest fragments. Canada's Forest Landscape Fragments: A First Approximation reveals that Canada's southern biodiversity-rich boreal and temperate forests - those forest areas primarily under concessions to forest and oil and gas companies - have been largely fragmented by industrial development.

This report, GIS data, maps, etc. share the results of the first stage of our change analysis project. Satellite images from different dates (~1990 and ~2000) for a selected study area in Québec were compared using a differencing algorithm so that we could assess where recent forest disturbances have occurred. The report includes three maps translated into Cree and is available in both English and French!

The magazine Corporate Knights ("the Canadian magazine for responsible business") featured Global Forest Watch Canada's work in their January 2006 issue. Visit the Corporate Knights website to download the article as a PDF.

"Green Miles," an article printed in the May/June 2004 issue of Earth Imaging Journal (EIJ), reviewed the importance, methodolody, and results of our Intact Forest Landscapes mapping project. It can be viewed on the EIJ website.

This report accompanies the earlier GFWC report, "Where Land and Waters Meet: Understanding and Protecting Riparian Areas in Canada's Forests." This newer report looks at riparian forest management standards across the country. It identifies many weaknesses in existing standards.

This GFWC collection of data, maps, and a report, which provides information on who the companies that process wood from Canada's forests are, where the forest product mills that process this wood are located, what kinds of products are produced, and what the production levels are like. To our knowledge, our dataset represents the only existing spatial dataset of forest product mills that includes all types of mills.

This collection of data, maps, and a report, provides information on how rights to log public forests are allocated to private companies across the country. Corporate consolidation in the forestry sector has led to larger and larger companies controlling more and more areas of publicly owned forest.

To request a copy of this report, contact NRTEE.

This GFWC report outlines the key roles and functions of forested riparian areas, the effects of forestry on them, and management implications.

GFWC combined statistics with mapping to depict socio-economic disparities in Aboriginal communities in forest regions in Canada.
Published in English and French!

GFWC's first major product, which contains our first look at the scale and magnitude of development within Canada's forests.
Published in English and French!