Canada is a beautiful country known for its attractive nature. The sheer size of Canada is often surprising as it is the second-largest country in the world at nearly 10,000,000 square kilometers. This places it ahead of countries like the United States, China, and Brazil yet still behind Russia (closer to 20,000,000 square kilometers). This makes Canada an important country for many reasons.
Economically Canada is only the tenth biggest country in the world with the United States, China and Japan the top three. Yet environmentally Canada is of incredible importance. While many people talk about the importance of the Amazon rainforest (and it is incredibly important) less is mentioned about the incredible forests of Canada.
Canada is dedicated to its forests. 35% of the country is covered in forestry. That means that while Canada is a large country the forested area alone is massive. If the area of Canada that is covered in forestry was a country on its own, it would be the 7th largest country in the world. The forested area of Canada is larger than India and Argentina.
Canada alone looks after 9% of the world’s forest meaning it is of incredible importance to the health of the earth. Even more impressive is that it looks after 25% of the world’s intact forests. The largest tree in Canada is 95 meters tall. While not the largest tree in the world (the Hyperion in California holds that title at 115m) they are close to it. These incredible trees provide a huge playground for the animals and plants of Canada to thrive.
These forests are incredibly important to Canada as they help stop flooding. They are incredibly important to the entire world as they purify the air and water and hold large amounts of carbon. We must do what we can to help Canada and countries around the world fight deforestation and promote forest conservation.
