Canada's boreal forest is a critical but often neglected ecosystem in responsible investment strategies, Canbury Insights says.

The Degradation of Canada's Boreal: Laws, Lobbying, and Links to Degradation analyses over 55 pages the boreal's importance, threats, and key industry players, to help investors initiate "informed engagements", the London-based consulting firm says of its report.

Threats to the boreal include unsustainable forestry practices, industrial expansion, and climate change-enhanced wildfires, it notes.

The report includes a call to action to investors to assess their investments' direct, and indirect (via a trade association) lobbying activities, and whether they align with their sustainability commitments and policies.

It notes that emerging regulations and frameworks like EU Deforestation Regulation and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive "underscore the growing importance of addressing boreal forest preservation in investment decisions, and in the assessment of investee companies' supply chains".

In identifying the most influential companies and trade associations shaping boreal forest policies, it applies the same approach as the Principles for Responsible Investment's Spring initiative, the investor members of which target engagement with companies that have the biggest impact on nature.

Canbury said it intends to expand the research over the next 12 months and develop a collaborative engagement initiative specific to Canada's boreal forest.

The report incorporated insights from representatives of MSCI Sustainability Institute, BNP Paribas Asset Management, Addenda Capital, EOS at Federated Hermes, Cardano, Natural Resources

Defense Council, Shareholder Association for Research and Education, and Domini Impact Investments, among others.

Emmy Shaw, an analyst at Canbury Insights, said: "This research addresses an oversight in international investors' priorities: the boreal forest, the world's largest carbon sink on land. At a time when biodiversity loss and climate change vulnerabilities are accelerating faster than ever, the boreal forest serves as an important buffer.

"By mapping lobbying and influence on policies that impact Canada's boreal, this report provides investors with introductory tools to engage companies and trade associations.

"The research builds on efforts to highlight how responsible political engagement can help preserve the Earth's last great intact forests - and the essential services they provide to people and the planet."