Taiga is the largest terrestrial biome, covering an area of around 16.6 million square kilometers of Earth's surface. It is characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches.

In North America, it covers most of inland Canada, Alaska, and parts of the northern contiguous United States. In Eurasia, it covers most of Sweden, Finland, much of Russia from Karelia in the west to the Pacific Ocean (including much of Siberia), much of Norway and Estonia, some of the Scottish Highlands, some lowland/coastal areas of Iceland, and areas of northern Kazakhstan, northern Mongolia, and northern Japan.

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 kilometers, more than twice the size Vancouver Island.

The next largest contiguous area of protected boreal forest - at roughly 45,000 km2 - is located in Russia, which is also home to the third, fourth, and fifth places.

All of the parks, except Dillon River, border Wood Buffalo National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site. Together with Wood Buffalo National Park and the existing and new parks, the protected land will form a conservation area of 67,735 square kilometers.

Nearly one-third of the world's boreal zone lies within Canada. The forest provides fresh air, and nurseries for migratory birds and is the planet's largest carbon sink, keeping carbon out of the atmosphere so it doesn't contribute to climate change.

According to cbc