Canada leads the world in fragmenting pristine, intact forests, and CBC says oil and gas development “plays a big role” in bringing the country such a dubious distinction. A report last week by the World Resources Institute reported last week that more than 100 million hectares of the world’s remaining intact forests—an area about the size of Ontario—were degraded between 2000 and 2013. Canada had 24% of the world’s intact forests in 2013, WRI said, and was responsible for 21% of global losses during the study period. Associate professor Peter Potapov of the University of Maryland said the oil and gas industry is largely responsible for degradation in Canada and West Siberia. “There’s huge areas affected by this fragmentation, by pipelines, seismic lines, industrial places, temporary settlements and so on,” he said.
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