Our forests and how we manage them have a critical role to play in providing nature-based solutions to climate change.

Everyone knows that as a forest grows, trees absorb and store carbon. But as trees age our forests become more susceptible to disturbances such as fire, pest outbreaks, droughts, and storms. Although these natural disturbances are normal and frequent in the forest, they release tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide and other GHGs back into the atmosphere, turning our forests from climate change assets into liabilities.

That’s where our sector comes in. 

Managing forests to avoid large emissions from the loss of old trees while rapidly removing carbon from the atmosphere through young forest growth can provide both storage and sequestration benefits. In addition, managed forests produce wood products that store carbon long after the trees are harvested. And because Canadian forestry is a world-leader in sustainable forest management, we do it all while respecting the water, soils, wildlife and biodiversity that will help keep our forests as forests forever.