Table 21.1. Area (1000 ha) of land by land use and terrestrial ecozone in Canada.
Terrestrial ecozone Land Use Total
Industrial Forestry Agriculture Conservation Infrastructure Settlement Recreation National defence Unknown Other1
Taiga Plains 6.04 5 732.02 6.74 1 635.53 10.10 3.96 7.81 - 49 337.08 - 56 739.29
Taiga Shield 156.45 49 735.26 - 7 502.94 32.38 26.41 251.84 365.85 51 895.09 - 109 966.20
Boreal Shield 1 492.66 112 266.10 1 085.31 31 196.99 1 936.88 1 233.93 4 954.86 370.85 9 411.58 - 163 949.16
Atlantic Maritime 46.17 14 728.28 1 450.01 1 698.48 534.12 282.42 237.44 71.90 592.79 - 19 641.62
Mixedwood Plains 45.60 3 382.74 5 912.42 367.36 579.98 589.96 49.62 2.34 87.24 - 11 017.25
Boreal Plains 724.74 39 035.62 12 680.11 7 120.73 408.75 998.50 44.53 1 053.57 5 036.71 - 67 103.25
Prairies 738.93 1 342.65 37 563.84 1 730.89 358.65 932.28 10.40 403.88 1 515.61 - 44 597.12
Taiga Cordillera 4.81 - - 2 442.26 1.90 - 405.84 - 23 580.13 - 26 434.94
Boreal Cordillera 192.42 603.79 0.00 6 202.84 33.82 41.36 1.36 - 38 869.56 - 45 945.14
Pacific Maritime 5.04 3 498.39 212.43 2 849.94 47.95 103.99 105.55 - 13 498.90 - 20 322.19
Montane Cordillera 48.27 17 656.17 1 106.41 9 769.15 97.81 83.76 841.03 - 17 877.67 - 47 480.26
Hudson Plains 31.20 12 922.14 1.29 20 945.04 14.84 194.25 - - 451.48 - 34 560.24
Canada 3 492.33 260 903.16 60 018.56 93 462.13 4 057.16 4 490.83 6 910.27 2 268.39 212 153.84 - 647 756.67
Source: Canada's National Forest Inventory, combined remeasured (2007-2017) and projected (2006-2017 with NFI projection system) data (Version 3.1, October 2025) (http://nfi.nfis.org)
Note: The Arctic ecozones (Arctic Cordillera, Northern Arctic, Southern Arctic), and the Taiga Plains and Hudson Plains ecozones located in Nunavut, are not inventoried. These non-inventoried areas total 262,189.89 thousand ha.
1 Missing, unknown or other land uses.