Click to view this graphic in a higher-resolution.
Mapping the World’s Forests: How Green is our Globe?
According to the United Nations (UN), forests cover 31% of the world’s land surface. They absorb roughly 15.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) every year.
More than half of this green cover is spread across the boreal forests of Russia and Canada, the Amazon in South America, and China’s coniferous and broad-leaved forests. These carbon-sequestering forests purify the air, filter water, prevent soil erosion, and act as an important buffer against climate change.
| Rank | Country | Forest Cover (in millions of hectares) |
|---|---|---|
| #1 |  Russia | 815 |
| #2 |  Brazil | 497 |
| #3 |  Canada | 347 |
| #4 |  United States | 310 |
| #5 |  China | 220 |
| #6 |  Australia | 134 |
| #7 |  Democratic Republic of the Congo | 126 |
| #8 |  Indonesia | 92 |
| #9 |  Peru | 72 |
| #10 |  India | 72 |
This series of maps by Adam Symington uses data sourced from images collected aboard the MODIS sensor on the Terra satellite to reflect the ratio of the world’s surface covered with tree canopy to non-green areas.
To explore the entire high resolution forest map, click the image above. Below we’ll take a closer look at some of the world’s green zones.
Asia
Home to the boreal forests of Russia, China’s broad-leaved forests, the mangrove forests of Indonesia, and the green belt along the mighty Himalayas, Asia boasts some of the richest and most biodiverse green canopies of the world.
Russia holds more than one-fifth of the world’s trees across 815 million hectares—larger than the Amazon’s canopy. (Read more...)