Peatland Boreal Forest Canada Ontario

Carbon Cache

What do wetlands, forests, grasslands, farmlands all have in common? They all have the potential to store tremendous amounts of carbon.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2017 found these so-called nature-based climate solutions could provide more than one-third of the emissions reductions needed to stabilize global temperature increases below 2 C by 2030 under the Paris Accord.

For countries with vast landscapes, the idea of these nature-based climate solutions created quite the buzz.

Those findings also thrust Canada — home to 25 per cent of Earth’s wetlands and boreal forests, as well as endangered prairie grasslands and the world’s longest coastline — into playing a vital role in the global fight against climate change.

This series looking at the role of Canada’s natural landscapes in the fight against climate change is funded by Metcalf Foundation. As per The Narwhal’s editorial independence policy, the foundation has no editorial input.

Locked out: how a 19th century land grant is still undermining First Nations rights on Vancouver Island

In his childhood, Elder Luschiim (Arvid Charlie) remembers the Cowichan and Koksilah rivers teeming with salmon — chinook and coho, chum and steelhead — so...

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