Key Scientific Findings

Government/System-Risk Assessments

• UK Government, “Nature Security Assessment: Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse and National Security,” UK Government, 2026 — Frames accelerating biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as national security risks, including implications for geopolitical stability, supply chains, and domestic resilience. (GOV.UK)

• World Economic Forum, “Global Risks Report 2026,” World Economic Forum, 2026 — Ranks biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse among the most severe global risks over the next decade, reinforcing a “systems risk” framing relevant for investors and policymakers. (World Economic Forum)

• Partha Dasgupta, “The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review,” HM Treasury, 2021 — Landmark economic assessment arguing that nature is an underpriced and under-accounted asset in modern economies and that failure to account for natural capital degradation creates systemic economic risk. (GOV.UK)

• IPBES, “Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services,” Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, 2019 — Comprehensive synthesis documenting widespread degradation of nature and escalating risks to biodiversity and human well-being without transformative policy and economic change. (IPBES)

• IPBES, “Nexus Assessment of Biodiversity, Water, Food, Health and Climate,” Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, 2024 — Highlights how degradation across biodiversity, water, food, health, and climate systems creates compounding risks and requires integrated policy responses. (IPBES)

Global Tracking and Degradation Scale

• Forest Declaration Assessment, “Forest Declaration Assessment 2025,” Forest Declaration Assessment, 2025 — Reports that deforestation and degradation remained high in 2024 and estimates roughly 8.8 million hectares of tropical moist forest degradation globally that year, undermining ecosystem integrity and resilience.(Forest Declaration Assessment)

• World Resources Institute, “Fires Drove Record-Breaking Tropical Forest Loss in 2024,” Global Forest Review, 2025 — Reports 6.7 million hectares of primary rainforest lost in 2024 (the highest level in at least two decades), highlighting how fire-driven degradation and loss are accelerating under hotter and drier conditions. (gfr.wri.org)

• Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, “Not all forest loss is equal: what is the difference between deforestation and forest degradation?,” Our World in Data, 2021 — Synthesizes global forest loss drivers based on Curtis et al. classifications, showing that only about one-quarter of global forest loss is permanent deforestation while the remainder is largely driven by degradation processes such as forestry, shifting agriculture, and wildfire. (Our World in Data)

• Nancy L. Harris et al., “Global maps of twenty-first century forest carbon fluxes,” Nature Climate Change, 2021— Produces high-resolution global maps of forest carbon removals and emissions from deforestation and other disturbances, showing the scale of gross forest carbon fluxes worldwide. (Nature Climate Change)

Canada Focused Research (Degradation, de Facto Deforestation, Accounting Gaps)

• Nature Canada, “Logging Emerges as Canada’s Third-Largest Climate Polluter,” Nature Canada, 2024 — Argues that logging is a major and under-recognized emissions source, estimating roughly 147 Mt CO₂ emissions in 2022 and positioning forestry as Canada’s third-largest emitting sector after oil & gas and transportation. (Nature Canada)

• David Bysouth et al., “High emissions or carbon neutral? Inclusion of ‘anthropogenic’ forest sinks leads to underreporting of forestry emissions,” Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 2024 — Finds that official forest carbon reporting mischaracterizes forestry emissions by classifying substantial harvest-related carbon losses as “natural,” significantly understating the climate impact of logging.(Frontiers)

• State of the Forest Coalition, “The State of the Forest in Canada,” 2024 — A site that synthesizes evidence on degradation impacts including road expansion, habitat fragmentation, and misleading “carbon neutral” narratives associated with industrial logging. (State of the Forest in Canada)

• Brendan Mackey et al., “Assessing the Cumulative Impacts of Forest Management in Ontario and Quebec, Canada: Are They Degrading or Emulating Natural Forest Disturbance?,” Land, 2024 — Documents cumulative ecological degradation resulting from decades of industrial logging and development in Ontario and Quebec. (Land)

• Wildlands League, “Logging Scars: Mapping the Legacy of Industrial Logging in Ontario,” Wildlands League, 2019 (supplement 2020) — Uses site-level evidence to document roads, landings, and persistent “barren scars,” showing substantially greater forest disturbance than reflected in official reporting. (Wildlands League)

• Matthew G. Betts et al., “Forest degradation drives widespread avian habitat and population declines,” Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2022 — Shows that forest degradation contributed to habitat declines for the majority of forest bird species in eastern Canada, with particularly strong impacts on species associated with older forests. (Nature Ecology & Evolution)

• Jeff Bowman et al., “Roads, logging, and the large-mammal community of an eastern Canadian boreal forest,” Canadian Journal of Zoology, 2010— Examines how roads and logging reshape large-mammal distributions in an eastern Canadian boreal forest, with implications for fragmentation-sensitive species such as woodland caribou. (Canadian Journal of Zoology)

Additional Peer-Reviewed Research Papers

• Linyan Yu et al., “Forest degradation contributes more to carbon loss than forest cover loss in North American boreal forests,” Remote Sensing of Environment, 2024— Finds that carbon losses from degradation can exceed those from forest cover loss in boreal forests, highlighting the importance of degradation beyond tropical contexts. (ScienceDirect)

• Daniel B. Tinker and Dennis H. Knight, “Coarse Woody Debris following Fire and Logging in Wyoming Lodgepole Pine Forests,” Ecosystems, 2000 — Finds that, in Wyoming lodgepole pine forests, timber harvesting removes much of the coarse woody debris left by natural disturbance, reducing important structural habitat elements. (Ecosystems)

• Mathieu Bouchard and David Pothier, “Long-term influence of fire and harvesting on boreal forest age structure and forest composition in eastern Québec,” Forest Ecology and Management, 2011 — Documents major declines in forests older than 60 years across eastern Quebec during the twentieth century due to expanding harvest areas. (Forest Ecology and Management)

• Robbie S.H. Johnson and Y. Alila, “Investigating forest harvesting effects on floods in two large, nested, and snow-dominated watersheds in British Columbia, Canada,” Journal of Hydrology, 2023 — Finds that forest harvesting significantly increases flood magnitude and frequency, with impacts intensifying as flood events become larger and watersheds expand. (Journal of Hydrology)

• Chiara Vergani et al., “Root reinforcement dynamics in subalpine spruce forests following timber harvest: a case study in Canton Schwyz, Switzerland,” Catena, 2016 — Shows that root reinforcement in harvested spruce forests declines rapidly after logging, increasing slope instability and landslide risk. (Catena)

• Fumitoshi Imaizumi et al., “Effects of forest harvesting on the occurrence of landslides and debris flows in steep terrain of central Japan,” Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 2008 — Finds landslide volumes were roughly four times higher in clear-cut areas and that elevated landslide risk persisted for decades after harvesting. (Earth Surface Processes and Landforms)

• Eraldo A.T. Matricardi et al., “Long-term forest degradation surpasses deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon,” Science, 2020 — Demonstrates that forest degradation in the Amazon can affect larger areas than deforestation and has major implications for carbon storage and biodiversity. (Science)

• Kenneth V. Rosenberg et al., “Decline of the North American avifauna,” Science, 2019 — Documents widespread population declines of birds across North America, showing that ecosystem-scale losses of individuals are occurring across multiple habitat types. (Science)