After making a map with satellite imagery to discover where the most degradation to intact forests occurred in the last decade, researchers at the University of Maryland came to what to some may be an unlikely conclusion: Canada. The map can be viewed at GlobalForestWatch.org (intact forest landscapes map layer is in the Forest Cover category).
The Hardwood Plywood & Veneer Association's email newsletter questioned the study, because other reputable sources "show Canada, specifically, applies stringent forestry practices and manages its timber resources well." The study's authors are still in the process of writing a peer-reviewed paper elaborating on their findings, but papers describing their methodology and conclusions can read online.
The most alarming result from the paper, "Mapping the World's Intact Forest Landscapes by Remote Sensing," is that forest degradation—in this case, the dividing of unbroken expanses of forest called intact forest landscapes (IFL) with an area at least 193 square miles—is happening at an alarming rate. Between 2000 and 2013, 256 million acres of IFL were degraded. Canada accounted for 21 percent of the total degradation, the largest of any country.
Peter Potapov, study author and associate professor of geographical sciences at the University of Maryland, told CBC News that the oil and gas industry is largely responsible.
"There's huge areas affected by this fragmentation, by pipelines, seismic lines, industrial places, temporary settlements and so on," he said.
Other countries that saw large swaths of IFLs degraded include:
- Paraguay lost 78 percent of its intact forests
- Russia lost 25 percent
- Democratic Republic of Congo lost 17 percent
