How much forest does Canada have?

Canada has 369 million ha of forest area with many unique forest types. Over the 125 years that the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) has existed, some of this forest has undergone noticeable change and some of it appears relatively unchanged. Forests in areas prone to natural disturbance may have burned and naturally regenerated two or three times in the past 125 years, while forests in other locations may be more than five times older than the CFS!

• Compared with total forest area, both afforestation and deforestation in Canada are small. Canada’s forests have seen less than half of 1% deforestation since 1990.
• The deforestation that occurs is due to agriculture, mining, oil and gas, forest roads and landings, urban development, and hydroelectric development. There is less recorded afforestation than deforestation in Canada.
• Canada uses the internationally agreed to definition of forest area, established by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, to ensure consistency across countries when reporting this important forest attribute.
• While forest area in Canada is relatively stable, the tree cover within is more dynamic due to wildland fires, insect infestations, harvest activities and forest cover re-growth.

Improved data reveal positive trend in forest area

Continued investments and enhancement of the National Forest Inventory (NFI) positions Canada to report, for the first time, forest area trends based on statistically robust repeat pan-Canadian forest measurements.

In previous State of Canada’s Forests reports, Canada used the best available data on forest area at a single point in time, from the NFI, together with the best available data on deforestation and afforestation, from deforestation monitoring and available afforestation records, to report on forest area changes between 1990 and present.

As a result of the addition of new data, the NFI now reveals that previously unreported increases in forest area are occurring in Canada’s forests. The trend is very small relative to the overall size of Canada’s forest. The probable causes for the observed modest increase in forest area include a combination of: natural infilling of former gaps in the forest, natural expansion at forest margins, the establishment of trees in areas that previously could not support them, the reclassification of areas recovering slowly from previous fires or disturbances which were mistakenly identified as non-forested, afforestation efforts, and land use designation changes where treed agricultural land has been designated as forest.

Consistent with the NFI data, recent research studies based on satellite measurements only have observed small increases in forest cover, that is, natural forest infilling and expansion as an important driver of increases. For the scientific community, trends in forest area (and forest cover) will continue to be an area of active investigation.

Percentage of forest land by age in Canada

Forests are dynamic ecosystems and continuously undergo cycles of growth, disturbance and regrowth. Where natural disturbances occur frequently, such as in fire-prone landscapes, these cycles repeat more frequently and there are fewer old stands, even in the absence of human disturbance. In areas less exposed to large forest disturbances like on islands and along lakeshores, where water acts as a fuel break, forests can remain undisturbed for centuries and older stands can develop. In the absence of major disturbances (e.g., wildfire or clear-cutting), old-growth forests continue to evolve through small-scale disturbances such as the death of individual trees.

Why is this indicator important?

• Understanding changes in total forest area in Canada is an important part of monitoring sustainable forest management. Healthy and functioning forest area provides habitats for biodiversity and many important ecosystem goods and services.
• The international community continues to put great emphasis on understanding global forest area changes. Although Canada’s forest area has been relatively stable in recent history, it remains important to monitor the effects of human activities and climate change.

What is the outlook?

• Natural increases and decreases in forest area tend to occur gradually where and when growing conditions or disturbance patterns allow. National forest monitoring, through the NFI, enables us for the first time to report these changes at the national scale. Changes to natural ecosystem processes induced by climate change may accelerate this historically slow process.
• Forest area is expected to remain generally stable. Rates of human-induced change are likely to remain low (See the indicator Deforestation and afforestation for more information).

How government initiatives support sustainable forest management

• The federal government’s Forest Systems Information and Technology Enhancement (ForSITE) program will enhance the forest information available to support forest management decisions for sustainable and resilient forests and to publicly report on forest inventory and management practices.

Canada’s annual deforestation rate has slightly decreased over the last three decades. In 2022, 49,250 ha of forest were converted to non-forest land uses, compared to 64,000 ha in 1990.

• Canada has 9% of the world’s forest but is responsible for only 0.37% of global deforestation since 1990.
• The main drivers of deforestation in Canada continue to be agricultural, oil and gas expansion, and mining.
• The development of hydroelectric reservoirs causes noticeable spikes in annual deforestation due to the flooding of forests, as seen in 1993 and 2006.
• Deforestation in the forestry category arises from new permanent forestry roads and other persistent clearings such as sizeable landings.
• The low annual area of recorded afforestation is much smaller than the annual area of deforestation, which in turn is much smaller than the total area of Canada’s forests.

Why is this indicator important?

• Forest loss affects biodiversity, soil, air and water quality, and the availability of wildlife habitat. Forests also store more carbon than other terrestrial ecosystems and can be managed to mitigate climate change, for example, by increasing the area of forest through afforestation or by avoiding deforestation.

What is the outlook?

• The deforestation rate in Canada is expected to remain steady at its current levels.
• Ongoing and planned initiatives for planting trees in both urban and rural areas are expected to increase the afforested land area in coming years. The contribution of this activity to ecosystem services such as restoring habitat and carbon sequestration is increasingly recognized.

How government initiatives support sustainable forest management

• The federal government’s 2 Billion Trees Program is a 10-year funding program that works through partnerships in support of incremental tree planting (through both afforestation and reforestation plantings) by 2031.

The National Forest Inventory (NFI) estimates that there are 50.4 billion cubic metres (m³) of wood in Canada’s forests. The provinces, territories and the Canadian Forest Service contribute data on wood volume to the NFI, which allows various national summaries of this important forest attribute, including:

• 72% of Canada’s wood volume on forest land is in coniferous forest types. The remaining is in broadleaf (14%) and mixed wood (14%) forest types.
• 50% of Canada’s wood volume is in forest stands between 61 and 120 years old. The remaining volume is in younger forests which contain less volume, and older forests, some of which have high volume and others that are sparsely treed.

How are national volume estimates improving?

Continued investments and enhancement of the NFI positions Canada to report, for the first time, wood volume trends based on statistically robust repeat pan-Canadian forest measurements.

In previous State of Canada’s Forests reports, Canada used the best available data on wood volume at a single point in time, from the NFI, together with the best available data on wood volume trends in Canada’s managed forests that were derived from the National Forest Carbon Monitoring Accounting and Reporting System, to report on overall wood volume changes between 1990 and present.

The new trend data from the NFI reveal previously unreported overall wood volume increases. This increase may be driven in part by forest area increases observed in NFI data. Given the small increase in forest area, the increase in total wood volume observed during the measurement period is minor. Forest cover increases have also been observed in studies by government and academic researchers.

Why is this indicator important?

Having a thorough understanding of how volume is distributed throughout the forest land base enables scientifically sound decision making. Canadian planners and policy analysts depend on understanding wood volume for:

• Protecting wildlife: A biologist can use wood volume as an indicator for identifying forests that are suitable habitat for species of interest. Understanding the total volume of specific species in a watershed, for example, or what percent of volume is in a specific age class may be helpful information for this task.
• Emergency planning: Wildland fires continue to impact many forests and people across the country. To keep Canadians safe, planners can make prevention and mitigation decisions if they know how dense a forest is, or how much volume of fire-prone tree species is located near a community.
• Sustainable forest management: Provincial and territorial governments set the allowable annual cut (AAC) for their jurisdictions. The AAC states how much volume can be harvested in each area and what types of species, age and tree health that volume must come from.

What is the outlook?

• Wildland fires and other natural disturbances will continue to impact wood volume across Canada’s forests. These events will increase dead tree volume, cause volume loss in some areas, shift the age class distribution as older stands are replaced by younger stands post-disturbance and alter tree species composition.
• Climate change will continue to alter how and where forest wood volume is distributed throughout Canada. Some areas may see an increase or decrease in volume due to the shift in climatic conditions.
• Wood volume can influence where Canadians live. Communities that have access to volume for products in emerging markets, such as bioenergy or mass-timber construction, may see an increase in jobs and population. Rural communities which have had their mill supply impacted by wildland fires, pests, or increases in wood supply restrictions may see a reduction in the forest sector-related jobs and population.

How government initiatives support sustainable forest management

The federal government’s Forest Systems Information and Technology Enhancement (ForSITE) program will enhance the forest information available to support forest management decision for sustainable and resilient forests and to publicly report on forest inventory and management practices.

Canadian wood volume on forest land: volume by species group

Canada’s top ten tree species groups on forest land by wood volume. Spruce and poplar, the top two, combine for over half of Canada’s wood volume.

Estimated wood volume (million cubic metres) in Canada