The 11 Largest Forests on the Planet

11. Great Bear Rainforest

This rainforest is part of the Pacific temperate rainforest area, which is the largest coastal temperate rainforest in the world. The Great Bear Rainforest makes up about 16 million acres of the area. Interestingly, the forest wasn’t officially recognized until 2016. Thankfully, at this time, the government promised to protect 85 percent of the old-growth forest and prevent logging.

It’s the smallest forest on this list, though it’s close in acreage to the next two forests. It’s got some interesting features, including a 1,000-year-olf western red cedar and a Sitka spruce that measures 295 feet.

10. Myanmar Coastal Rainforest

The Myanmar Coastal Rainforest is roughly 16.5 million acres. Despite the name, it’s located in both Myanmar and Bangladesh. This rainforest is made up of tropical and subtropical trees. This forest runs along almost the entirety of the coast in Myanmar and a small part of Bangladesh.

All sorts of large and well-loved animals make this forest their home. You can find tigers, Asian elephants, Malayan tapirs, leopards, sun bears, and clouded leopards amongst many other animals. It was also once home to the Sumatran rhinoceros but they unfortunately went extinct in 1984.

9. Tongass National Forest

At 17 million acres, the Tongass National Forest isn’t one to overlook. A third of this forest, roughly 5.7 million acres, is managed as wilderness. Thanks to the lack of people in the area and the management effort, much of the land looks untouched.

Though the trees are pretty, they aren’t the main attraction bringing in tourists. It’s actually the glaciers in the area. There are over 100,000 glaciers in Alaska, many of them in Tongass National Forest. Besides glaciers, there is a lot to do in the forest besides looking at the giant sheets of ice. Boating, hiking, and fishing are also optional activities.

8. Primorye Forest

Located in Russia, the Primorye Forest covers around 31 million acres. It’s a unique area in that it’s the only place on earth where glaciers never reached. This means that it has some diverse and unique animals.

The section of Russia known as Primorsky Krai, where the forest is located, runs along the east coast. 80 percent of the region is forested. The area is also mountainous, filled with rivers. The forest runs right up to the coast.

7. Valdivian Temperate Rainforest

The Valdivian Temperate Rainforest is roughly 41 million acres. This forest is found in Argentina and Chile. While it has normal trees, specifically evergreens, it’s also unique with its understory full of bamboo and ferns.

Though the forest covers a lot of acreage, it’s a narrow strip of forest that runs along the lower west coast of South America. There are only two temperate rainforests in South America, the other being the Magellanic Rainforest.

6. Appalachian Forest

The next largest forest is the Appalachian Forest. It covers 86 million acres in the US, stretching from Kentucky and Virginia down to Georgia and Alabama.

There are at least 2,000 different fungi species alone in the forest. There’s also a mix of different types of trees including fir and spruce.

5. Borneo Lowland Rainforests

Borneo places fifth on the largest forests in the world with 105 million acres of forest. This makes up over half of Borneo’s total land area. Most of the rainforest is below the elevation of 3,280 feet on the island.

Borneo is made up of three countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. The forest reaches all of these countries. It’s also one of the oldest forests in the world at 130 million years old.

4. New Guinea Rainforest

Stretching over 190 million acres, the New Guinea Rainforest places number four on the list of largest forests. However, it’s the third-largest rainforest in the world.

This rainforest also accounts for about seven percent of the biodiversity on the planet. Like many forests, it’s losing space at an alarming rate. Over 12 million acres of forest were lost in the thirty years between 1972 and 2002.

3. Congo Rainforest

In addition to being the third largest rainforest, the Congo Rainforest is home to the second largest river by volume. The forest stretches across 500 million acres, which makes it larger than Alaska.

There are technically nine countries that have a part of the rainforest, but there are six that are commonly associated with it. These are the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, The Democratic Republic of Congo, and Gabon.

2. Amazon Rainforest

Amazon’s Rainforest is 1.2 billion acres. It’s located in South America and stretches across several countries including Brazil, Peru, South, Bolivia, and Columbia. Most of the forest is in Brazil, though.

The Amazon Rainforest makes up about two-fifths of the South American continent. Unfortunately, it’s growing smaller every year due to deforestation.

1. Boreal Forests

Boreal forests have a few unique measurements. Not only is part of it the largest forest in the world, but the boreal forest in Canada is the world’s largest intact forest.

The part in Canada stretches out over 1.2 billion acres. To put it into another perspective, the Canadian boreal forest accounts for 25 percent of the total forests still left in the world.

In total, the boreal forests spread out across Alaska, Russia, and Canada. The two boreal forests are two of the five families in the Family of Five. These are the forests that are still relatively untouched throughout the world. The others include forests on this list; Congo Basin, Borneo tropical forests, and New Guinea tropical forest.