In July 2008, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced a world-leading commitment to conservation-focused land-use planning for Ontario's Great Boreal Forest, including protection for more than 50% of the area. To make this bold commitment a reality, we need a strong Boreal legislation that:

1. Creates a well-resourced joint Planning Board to allow First Nations and the Province to work together and share implementation of planning.

2. Details how Ontario will work in partnership with First Nations to determine the location, use and management of the 50% or more of the region that the Premier has committed to protect as conservation lands.

3. Sets out how community plans will be developed and integrated with regional objectives.

4. Describes how communities will realize long-term benefits from development and their role in management.

5. Provides a clear role for a Science Advisory Committee, including objectives for how it will inform land-use planning.

6. Sets clear rules for the development of roads, corridors and industrial activity outside of protected areas.

Click on any map for a larger view.

The pink line on this map is the current limit for industrial logging in Ontario. The land north of this line is the intact and ecologically healthy Great Boreal Forest region.

The boreal forest stretches from coast to coast across Canada and is part of a forest system that wraps around the Northern Hemisphere.

This Global Forest Watch Canada (GFWC) map shows where large, unlogged forests remain in Ontario (bright green areas) and demonstrates the ecological importance of the northern boreal. For more on GFWC's intact forest mapping project, visit www.globalforestwatchcanada.org

This map illustrates the extensive logging (mostly clearcutting) in the southern boreal forest.

This map illustrates how caribou have steadily retreated northward in Ontario in the face of human development.

This map illustrates the enormous importance of the intact boreal region for carbon storage and controlling climate change.

This map illustrates the extreme sensitivity of peatlands — massive storehouses of carbon (see map above) — to climate change.

This map illustrates what could happen to the remaining intact boreal forest if we do not implement strong conservation focused planning ahead of further development.