Ontario Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford met with members of the Mushkegowuk Council, opening discussions about a 300,000-square-kilometre conservation zone.
Every year, about 1.3 million metric tonnes of Canada’s peatlands are dug up for sale to farmers and gardeners. With every hectare lost, planet-warming carbon dioxide is released into the air.
As the United Nations biodiversity conference draws near, dozens of scientists from 13 countries are calling for protection of the world’s waterlogged, carbon-rich peatlands, a quarter of which exist within Canada’s borders and are threatened by development.
From Minnesota to the Northwest Territories, researchers are studying dramatic changes in the vast northern forests: thawing permafrost, drowned trees, methane releases, increased wildfires, and the slow transformation of these forests from carbon sinks to carbon emitters.