There are roughly 4.14 billion hectares of forests on Earth, distributed across its entire surface, reminiscent of 32 percent of the world’s total land area. This isn’t an atypical statistic.
Behind this is a vital role that supports hundreds of thousands of species, maintains climate balance, prevents disasters and produces 20 to twenty-eight percent of the oxygen within the Earth’s atmosphere.
These findings are presented within the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025 report published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
What is striking is that of those billion hectares, greater than half are concentrated in only five countries. This implies that a big a part of the world’s “lungs” is held by a small group of countries with geographically vast territories.
Top 10 countries with the biggest forest areas
Based on FAO data, listed below are the ten countries with the biggest forest areas on this planet:
- Russia – 832,630 ha
- Brazil – 486,087 hectares
- Canada – 368,819 ha
- United States – 308,895 hectares
- China – 227,153 ha
- Democratic Republic of the Congo – 139,189 hectares
- Australia – 133,562 hectares
- Indonesia – 95,969 hectares
- India – 72,739 hectares
- Peru – 67,160 hectares
Russia dominates, with almost twice the forest area of Brazil, which is available in second place. The five largest countries, Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United States and China, together account for 54 percent of the world’s total forest area.
A transparent similarity between these five countries is their status as among the largest nations on this planet, which implies that their forest area is closely proportional to their total land area.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, FAO also notes several countries and territories that haven’t any forests in any respect, including the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Vatican City, Monaco, Nauru, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, in addition to Tokelau.
Among the ten countries on the list, Indonesia is the one country from Southeast Asia. Indonesia, ranked eighth with a forest area of 95,969 hectares, isn’t only vast by way of forest cover, but additionally extremely diverse.
There are 19 various kinds of forests across the country, starting from tropical forests, mangroves and savannahs to peat forests and monsoon forests. Indonesia’s tropical forest itself is the third largest on this planet, after the Amazon and Congo.
More importantly, Indonesia’s mangrove forests and peatlands are the biggest on this planet and constitute two ecosystems that function critical buffers in mitigating global climate change.
This diversity isn’t accidental. Indonesia lies along the equator and between two continental tectonic plates, the Eurasian Plate and the Australian Plate.
This geographic location creates ideal conditions with loads of sunlight and rainfall year-round, two key elements that drive photosynthesis and support massive plant growth.
As a result, Indonesia is home to extraordinary biodiversity. Its forests are home to lots of of animal species, hundreds of tree species and as much as 150,000 species of insects.
It’s no surprise that Indonesia is recognized as certainly one of the world’s leading countries for mega-biodiversity, second only to Brazil.
