ABSTRACT
Canada has a special position in the world in that about a quarter of the wetlands that remain are in Canada. Canadians saw a need for a wider variety of tools to focus on wetland conservation. Over 70 percent of the wetlands in the southern portions of the central Prairies, southern Ontario, and the Fraser Lowland in British Columbia have been converted to other land uses. However, wetland disturbance has been minimal in lightly populated areas of Canada, such as the boreal zone, where most of Northern forested wetlands are found. Forested wetlands comprise up to 70 percent of the 127 million ha of wetlands in Canada. Much of this is dominated by peatland soils at least 40 cm deep. The economic values of forest products harvested from forested wetlands in Canada is estimated to exceed $500 million Canadian annually.
