As the International Year of Forests comes to a close, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s North American Environmental Atlas and the North American Forest Commission (NAFC) have teamed up to produce a new map of the primary forest ecological zones of North America. The national forest inventories for the three countries, with data from approximately 4.5 million trees sampled over five years, were combined to map 18 primary forest ecological zones. These zones cover all but two global primary ecological zones, making North America the most diverse region on Earth, and this diversity is packed into approximately 17% of the world’s forest area. When combined with other map layers such as protected areas, carbon stocks and human influence, this map provides the basis for tailoring appropriate forest management strategies. Read More
