Forests cover 4.14 billion hectares of the planet, roughly 32 percent of all land area. That works out to about half a hectare of forest for every person on Earth. But forests are far from evenly spread. They cluster in distinct belts shaped by latitude, rainfall, and temperature, from the dense rainforests hugging the equator to the vast conifer expanses stretching across the far north.
Countries With the Most Forest
Nearly half of the world’s total forest area sits within just four countries: Russia, Brazil, Canada, and the United States. Russia alone holds the largest share, followed by Brazil, Canada, the U.S., China, Australia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Indonesia. These eight nations account for the overwhelming majority of global forest cover, though the type of forest in each varies dramatically. Russia’s forests are almost entirely cold-weather conifers, while Brazil’s are dominated by tropical rainforest and the U.S. spans everything from temperate hardwoods to Pacific Northwest rainforests.
Tropical Rainforests Near the Equator
Tropical rainforests grow in a warm, wet band close to the equator, concentrated in three major regions. The largest is the Amazon basin, spanning Brazil and neighboring countries across South and Central America. The second is in West and Central Africa, anchored by the Congo River basin. The third stretches across Southeast Asia, from Myanmar through Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and into the Pacific islands as far as Fiji and Vanuatu. Parts of tropical Australia also fall within this zone.
These forests thrive where rainfall is heavy and temperatures stay warm year-round. They hold more species of plants and animals per square kilometer than any other forest type on Earth. Despite covering a relatively small fraction of total land area, tropical rainforests play an outsized role in regulating the global climate by absorbing carbon dioxide.
Tropical Dry Forests
Not all tropical forests are rainforests. Between 30° North and 30° South latitude, large stretches of forest experience a pronounced dry season that can last several months. These tropical dry forests are found across six broad regions: Africa, North and Central America, South America, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. The World Wildlife Fund recognizes 53 distinct tropical and subtropical dry forest ecoregions worldwide.
Dry forests look noticeably different from rainforests. Many of their trees shed leaves during drought months, canopy heights are lower, and species diversity drops compared to their wetter neighbors. On their drier edges, these forests grade into grasslands and scrublands. On their wetter edges, they transition into taller, lusher forests with more evergreen species. Because dry forests grow in regions well suited for farming and ranching, they have been heavily cleared over the centuries and are now among the most threatened forest types.
Boreal Forests Across the Far North
The boreal forest, also called taiga (a Russian word meaning “land of the little sticks”), forms an enormous belt across the far Northern Hemisphere. It occupies about 17 percent of Earth’s entire land surface, making it the single largest forest biome on the planet. The taiga stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific across both North America and Eurasia, spanning much of Canada and Alaska, nearly all of Siberia, and parts of Scandinavia. In Asia, it extends southward into northeastern China and Mongolia.
True boreal forest does not reach into the lower 48 U.S. states, though transition forests with some boreal characteristics exist along the northern tier. To the north, the taiga thins out and merges into treeless tundra as conditions become too cold and dry for even the hardiest conifers. The dominant trees are spruces, firs, larches, and pines, species adapted to long, brutal winters and short growing seasons. Boreal forests store enormous amounts of carbon in their soils and peat layers.
Temperate Forests in the Middle Latitudes
Between the tropics and the boreal zone, roughly 25° to 60° latitude in both hemispheres, lie the temperate forests. These are far more common in the Northern Hemisphere. Major concentrations include the eastern United States, southern Canada, western and far-eastern Europe, and large parts of China, Japan, and Korea. In the Southern Hemisphere, temperate forests are more limited but still significant in southern Australia, New Zealand, and a narrow strip of Chile.
Temperate forests come in several varieties. Deciduous forests, where broadleaf trees drop their leaves in autumn, dominate in the eastern U.S. and much of Europe. Temperate conifer forests, including the towering Douglas fir and giant sequoia stands of the Pacific Northwest, line the west coast of North America. California’s montane forests alone contain the world’s largest single-stem tree, the General Sherman giant sequoia, and host more than 30 conifer species in the Klamath-Siskiyou mountain range. Temperate rainforests, sustained by heavy coastal rainfall, appear in the Pacific Northwest, southern Chile, New Zealand, and parts of Australia.
Montane and Cloud Forests
Mountains create their own forest zones regardless of latitude. As elevation increases, temperatures drop and moisture patterns shift, producing bands of forest that differ from the lowlands below. In tropical mountains across Central and South America, East Africa, and Southeast Asia, this creates cloud forests: cool, perpetually misty environments draped in mosses and ferns. In temperate regions, mountain ranges like the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, the Alps, and the Himalayas support montane conifer and mixed forests that climb to the treeline before giving way to alpine meadows and bare rock.
These mountain forests are ecologically important because they capture moisture from fog and clouds, feeding rivers and streams that supply water to lowland communities. They also serve as refuges for species that cannot survive in warmer habitats below.
Mangrove Forests Along Tropical Coasts
Mangrove forests occupy a specialized niche: the muddy, tidal coastlines of tropical and subtropical regions, typically between 25° North and 25° South latitude. They are found along shorelines in Southeast Asia, West Africa, Central and South America, northern Australia, and the Caribbean. Unlike any other forest type, mangroves grow in saltwater, tolerating high salinity, extreme tides, and oxygen-poor soils.
Mangroves protect coastlines from storm surges and erosion, serve as nurseries for commercially important fish species, and store carbon at rates far higher than most land-based forests. Despite their value, mangrove area has declined significantly over recent decades due to coastal development, shrimp farming, and pollution.
How Global Forest Area Is Changing
The world’s forests are not static. Between 1990 and 2000, the planet lost a net 10.7 million hectares of forest per year. That rate slowed considerably to 3.68 million hectares per year between 2000 and 2015, largely because of significant reforestation and natural forest expansion in China, Canada, Russia, and the United States. However, the trend has reversed slightly: between 2015 and 2025, net forest loss ticked back up to 4.12 million hectares per year, driven not by faster clearing but by a slowdown in new forest growth.
The losses are concentrated in the tropics, particularly in South America, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia, where forests are cleared for agriculture, logging, and development. Meanwhile, gains have come primarily in temperate and boreal zones through both deliberate planting and the natural regrowth of previously cleared land. The net result is a slow geographic shift: tropical forests are shrinking while some northern forests are expanding, altering the global map of where forests stand.