Boreal wetland
Watercolour and crayon
Charlene Brown
According to the
Canadian Institute for Climate Choices publication, Don’t drain the swamp, wetlands are an asset worth billions of dollars, and fully one quarter
of the global supply is found right here in Canada.
Besides their massive
economic and ecological benefits of water cleaning and flood control, wetlands
are instrumental in our struggle against a changing climate. Peatlands, for
example, store twice as much carbon as forests. This means that Canadians can
have a robust carbon mitigation strategy simply by protecting remaining
wetlands. Conversely, if wetlands continue drying up, then not only will we
lose our ability to sequester carbon, but stored carbon can be released back
into the atmosphere—increasing our emissions.
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| Click on image to enlarge |
Over 13 per cent of
Canada (1.3 million km2) is classified as wetland ecosystem, a term
that includes marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens. Almost two thirds of these
wetlands are found in the Boreal zone. A
smaller percentage is located in Montane zones, such as the fenlands in Banff
National Park in the painting on the right.
