VANCOUVER -- How much is a forest worth if it's simply left standing instead of being logged and sent to a mill?
That question, in simple terms, is what researchers from the Pembina Institute set out to answer in a two-year study that calculated for the first time the "natural capital" contained in Canada's boreal forest ecosystem.

Considering everything from the pest-control services provided by birds to the worth of having peat lands filter drinking water, the researchers calculated the boreal forest ecosystem's non-market value at more than $93- billion annually.
In addition, the study found that the boreal forest, which reaches from Yukon to the Eastern Seaboard, works as a massive carbon sink. It stores an estimated 67 billion tonnes of carbon, the equivalent of 303 years of Canada's total 2002 carbon emissions. Considering the global effort to control carbon emissions, researchers said the boreal forest could be looked at like a "carbon bank account" worth $3.1-trillion (U.S.).
David Schindler, a professor of ecology in the faculty of science at the University of Alberta, said the Pembina Institute report should help convince Canadians that nature has far more to offer than just aesthetic value.
"Dollars and cents are part of a language everyone understands," Prof. Schindler said. "I hope this will make people sit up and take notice of the value of the resources around them and the value of the services they provide."
He said society generally looks only at the market value of natural resources, without taking into account the services that forests and wetlands are providing for free.
Prof. Schindler said the value of the "natural capital" must be considered whenever resource projects are contemplated in the boreal forest region.
"What it's saying is, 'Look at these values before you turn the forest into another pile of logs and sell it.' "
The Pembina Institute, an independent, not-for-profit policy research organization, undertook the study for the Canadian Boreal Initiative, a conservation group concentrating on issues affecting the boreal forest. The report is to be released today.
The report defines natural capital as the "resources, living systems, and ecosystem services," that provide benefits to humans.
When that value is added to the balance sheet, the study states, the picture is more complete, and remarkably different.
The report says the non-market values to be considered include: $5.4- billion for pest-control services by birds; $4.5-billion for nature-related activities; $575-million in subsistence value for aboriginal peoples; $79- million in non-timber forest products and $18-million for watershed services, such as holding municipal water resources.