Climate change is real, accelerating and poses a significant threat to the wild ecosystems CPAWS Wildlands League works to protect.   

Protecting terrestrial and marine ecosystems can decrease stresses on natural ecosystems and increase ecological resilience.  CPAWS promotes the protection of wild ecosystems as a strategy for supporting the ability of biodiversity to respond and survive in the face of climate change. Therefore, CPAWS Wildlands League:

·        supports a massive global scaling up of efforts to deeply cut greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic impacts of climate change;

·        promotes the protection of wild ecosystems as a climate change mitigation strategy complementary to deep reductions in fossil fuel emissions; and

·        promotes the protection of wild ecosystems for the primary purpose of protecting biodiversity.

CPAWS Wildlands League believes that considerations of ecosystem resilience and the susceptibility of areas to emit carbon in response to development can usefully be incorporated into land-use/marine-use and conservation planning. CPAWS Wildlands League supports the inclusion of land use, land use change and forestry within an international climate change framework provided that the framework is rigorous, supportive of wilderness conservation and complementary to the need for deep cuts in direct fossil fuel emissions. 

In addition, CPAWS Wildlands League supports the development of strong carbon trading frameworks at the domestic and international level.  CPAWS supports the inclusion of land use, land use change and forestry within carbon markets where it is rigorous, supportive of wilderness conservation and complementary to the need for deep cuts in direct fossil fuel emissions.

CPAWS Wildlands League supports the use of forest offsets within carbon frameworks only where it is demonstrated that it is rigorous, supportive of wilderness conservation and does not undermine required reductions in overall emissions.

Province urged to protect carbon stores in intact forests

Greenhouse gas targets are only part of the solution

June 19, 2007 -  CPAWS Wildlands League is urging the province to protect carbon stores and biodiversity in addition to setting targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  "The public does not realize that there is so much carbon stored in our natural wild forests," says Janet Sumner, Executive Director, CPAWS Wildlands League.  "If we foolishly convert these carbon rich forests and peatlands into industrial developments, then we would undo our emissions reductions," Ms. Sumner adds.

Read the entire release and backgrounder here.



The boreal is one of the three last great forests left on the planet. It is an air purifier, water filter and climate regulator. As we move into a carbon constrained time, forests become increasingly important to keep intact. Forests sequester carbon and mitigate the effects of climate change. The vast boreal forest is a climate regulator on a planetary scale. It must not die the death of a thousand cuts from thousand industrial incursions.

The goal, if we are to stabilize the climate, is to keep CO2 levels at 450 ppb. Fragmenting the boreal forest will significantly add to our emissions, whether it is releasing carbon from trees or plentiful bogs.

See our What's the Connection? fact sheet for more information