Major Environmental Concerns  

[ Land Degradation | Forests | Biodiversity | Marine and Ice | Ozone Depletion | Pollution | Population ]

The taiga is a zone of coniferous forest encircling the northern hemisphere south of the permafrost line. It represents an important commercial resource in the Russian Federation, Finland, and Sweden. The plant and animal species composition is relatively uniform throughout the taiga. The taiga forest basically consists of one canopy layer with an undervegetation of dwarf shrubs, mainly of the heather family, crowberry, and mosses and lichens. Broad-leaved deciduous forests are found in the areas of warmer and more oceanic climates. A characteristic feature of the boreal zone is the formation of peatlands (bogs), which develop in wet areas due to poor drainage and incomplete decomposition of plant material. Iceland had large forests before the arrival of the first settlers in the early Middle Ages. Gradual but steady deforestation and extensive sheep and horse herding have since practically cleared the entire island of forests. In the Russian Federation, large-scale clear cutting and plantation forest monoculture are environmental concerns. Landscapes are altered, the local climate is affected, the natural diversity of the forests is disrupted, and bogs and marshes are often drained in the process of planting new forest stands. The new stands are usually single species of uniform age (EEA/NPI, 1996).

United Nations Environment Programme