Largest contiguous protected boreal forest

In May 2018, the government of Alberta, Canada, announced the creation of four new provincial parks and the expansion of another in the north-east of the province, affording protection to a contiguous stretch of boreal forest spanning in excess of 67,700 square kilometres (26,140 square miles) - more than twice the size of Belgium. The new parks are called Kazan, Dillon River, Richardson and Birch Park; the expanded existing park was Birch Mountains Wildland. Four of the five parks lie adjacent to Wood Buffalo National Park (established in 1922 and Canada's largest national park), which crosses over into the neighbouring Northwest Territories and by itself occupies just under 45,000 square kilometres (17,375 square miles) of the total. Boreal forest, aka taiga, is a cold-climate forest found at high latitudes consisting primarily of pine, spruce and larch trees. As well as extensive coniferous woodland, this biodiversity-rich habitat also includes wetlands, lakes, rivers and prairies, making it a haven for wildlife such as wood bison, moose, whooping cranes, owls, lynx, wolves, bears and beavers.

Taiga is the largest terrestrial biome, covering an area of around 16.6 million square kilometres (6.4 million square miles) of Earth's surface. The next largest contiguous area of protected boreal forest - at roughly 45,000 km2 (17,365 sq mi) - is located in Russia, which is also home to the third, fourth and fifth places. This is not surprising given that the taiga in northern Siberia alone covers around 5.9 million sq km (2.3 million sq mi) – around one-third of the world’s forested area.

The new protected areas were originally identified in the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan in 2012 but hit a roadblock until fresh discussions were undertaken, which sought buy-in from local indigenous communities. The plan was approved after bilateral talks between the provincial and federal governments, the Tallcree First Nation, oilsands giant Syncrude and the Nature

Conservancy of Canada.

The Wood Buffalo National Park is also home to the world's longest beaver dam, measuring some 850 m (2,788 ft) long, which was first spotted via satellite imagery in 2007.