Although it currently still contains large areas of pristine habitat, and one of the lowest human populations in the world, the taiga is currently facing massive change and degradation as a result of logging, mining, fossil fuel exploration and unsustainable hunting.
 Most boreal countries have already exploited more of their natural forests than most tropical countries. Boreal countries have protected smaller proportions of their productive forest areas and are currently extracting the last remains of some unique forest types with a speed that is exceeding that of the tropics. Although the area of northern forest may seem stable, this masks an important general loss of quality of forests.
 Forestry legislation is not able to safeguard ecologically sustainable forest use anywhere in the boreal region. The rights of indigenous peoples are violated by commercial forestry and other kinds of industrial exploitation throughout the boreal forest belt.
This site is neither aimed to be a large database of information with analysis and summaries, nor is it supposed to be a complete source of  information. It is an introduction and a flexible guide that might help you to find the information you are looking for. Please visit our links to TRN participant organisations that lead campaigns on these specific issues and have a wealth of information for each topic.
For recent press releases or articles on these activities please feel free to use our search engine using the keywords: oil and gas; mining; timber extraction; hydroelectric; and/or hydro |
