Seeing the Forests for the Trees

The United States and Canada have a larger area of protected forest than Sweden, Finland, Russia, Brazil, Germany and the United Kingdom put together. This land provides habitat for thousands of species of wildlife, and is legally protected for the benefit of current and future generations.

Just how much protected forest is there? Canada has 36.5 million hectares (86.5 million acres) of parks and protected areas, which represents about eight percent of its total forested land. That's an area larger than Germany. In British Columbia, the total protected area was doubled from less than six percent of the land base to more than 12 percent between 1990 and 2004. In 1999, Ontario set aside an additional 2.4 million hectares—increasing the amount of land protected by a third, to more than 9 million hectares.

In the US, the amount of protected forest has doubled since the 1950s. It currently stands at 7% of the forest land base, or 271 million acres (108 million hectares)—mainly comprised of state and national parks and preserved wilderness areas. If you include conservation easements, areas protected by non-government organizations, urban and community parks and reserves, the amount is significantly larger.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service manages 92 million acres scattered across 50 states as national wildlife refuges, waterfowl protection areas, wildlife research areas, fish hatcheries, and fish research stations.