The importance of forests to our planet is more apparent now than ever before. It is trees that filter our carbon emissions out of the atmosphere. Over the past four years photographer Jeroen Toirkens (b. 1971) and journalist and programme maker Jelle Brandt Corstius (b. 1978) visited forests in the boreal zone for their Borealis project. This zone is a circle of mainly coniferous forest extending across the northern regions of Europe, Asia and America. Thirty per cent of all trees are in this zone, and they are vital for maintaining the earth’s ecological balance, converting huge quantities of CO2 into oxygen. Yet less than 12% of the forests are protected, and they face threats from all quarters: commercial logging, the vulnerability of newly planted trees and raging forest fires, as seen last summer in Siberia. For Borealis Jeroen Toirkens and Jelle Brandt Corstius sought out the stories of the forests and the people who live there. The exhibition at Fotomuseum Den Haag will feature all eight parts of this project.