Forests are absolutely a necessary factor for the survival of humans. They are home to precious natural resources like freshwater and contain more than half of the world’s species. There are many beautiful forests, and collectively they cover around one-third of the earth’s total acreage. Each forest provides its unique combinations of trees and understory plants. It also has fungi, mosses, a diverse array of animals, insects, and people. They help to prevent erosion and provides the priceless production of oxygen. The following is a list of the largest forests on the earth and check what makes each of them unique.
10 Sinharaja Forest Reserve
It is one of the last remaining least disturbed rainforests of Sri Lanka. UNESCO designated it as a World Biosphere in 1978. In 1998, UNESCO designated this national park as a World Heritage Site to recognize the living heritage and valuable, rich ecosystems of this forest reserve. Many endemic wildlife species contain more than fifty percent of endemic butterflies and mammals and different types of reptiles, insects, and rare amphibians of Sri Lanka.
This forest region is home to sixty percent of the park’s trees, which are endemic to the area, and many of them are considered extremely rare. The name of the rich forest reserve refers to “Lion Kingdom.” The locals enormously appreciated the forest ecosystem for its biodiversity and importance to the island’s natural balance. It was recognized as a living heritage, though smaller than other National Parks, bordering Galle, Matara, and Ratnapura’s three districts.
The largest carnivore of this forest reserve is the leopard. The perfect time to visit this forest is between January to May and then From August to December. More than 154 various bird species inhabit the Sinharaja Forest. Additionally, it made up of ridges and valleys in the east-west direction, and rivers bordered them.
Although there is legal protection, forest reserve has still illegal poachers as well as unlawful gem miners. This area achieves around ten months of rain in a year, with average temperatures about 20 to 25°C. February is the only dry month that we experienced in the park. The canopy trees of the Forest Reserve can reach up to heights of more than 45 meters. Moreover, Sinharaja Forest Reserve supports over ninety percent of 26 endemic bird species of Sri Lanka.
- Area: 34 square miles
- Forest Category: Tropical Lowland Rainforest and Sub-tropical Forests
- Established: April 1978
- Country: Sri Lanka
- Prominent Wildlife: Sri Lanka Crested Drongo and Green Pit Viper
9 Mindo-Nambillo Cloud Forest
It is a sprawling, beautiful forest in Mindo, located in the Andes Mountains. It graces Ecuador as a salient ecological site and a beautiful tourist attraction. As the name indicates, it is cloud timberland. The Mindo cloud forest in the northwest corner of Ecuador surrounded the tiny town of Mindo.
It is also better known for the chocolate production in Ecuador, “Mindo chocolate.” This much cooler forest is moister than a tropical rainforest. It also covers an area of around 74 square miles. We can also find this forest is in the incomparable Amazonian Forest area. Topographical variation in the river forms and highly elevated peaks provides worldwide diversity in flora and fauna very much like each other.
The Mindo Forest area was home to over 1,600 various types of winged animals, frogs, and different creatures. It also consists of people of Yumbo-Nigua, who settled here before the Incas. Nowadays, this ecological treasure is a private reserve that always attempts to save the many species that live in this Cloud Forest.
We can see more than 450 various types of birds that find sanctuary and a wide range of different kinds of orchids in this Cloud Forest. The highlights in Mindo forest differ from Ecuador’s other popular destinations. The stunning natural attractions like chocolate tours, hiking, nature reserves, and bird watching in early morning tours make it such a great place to spend more time exploring the country’s beauty.
- Area: 74 square miles
- Forest Category: Cloud Forest
- Established:1861
- Country: South America
- Prominent Wildlife: Quetzals and Basilisks
Top 10 most wildest places on Earth
8 Kinabalu National Park
Kinabalu was Malaysia’s first National Park, located on the northern end of Borneo. It surrounds the highest mountain, called Mount Kinabalu, which is the youngest non-volcanic mountain in the world. Kinabalu National Park has four climate zones that make an atmosphere for rich and diverse plant life.
The forest’s vegetation regions include the montane forest, cloud forest, lowland dipterocarp forest, and the sub-alpine zone. UNESCO designated this Kinabalu National Park as a World Heritage Site in 2000. Additionally, it is home to eleven land snails’ species,326 bird species, unique flora and fauna, and at least 100 species of mammal.
The mammal species, such as Bornean gibbons, tarsiers, and orangutans in Kinabalu National Park, are rare for visitors to see. People can most commonly see creatures like mouse deer, squirrels, and tree shrews. Moreover, this park provides over 5,000 vascular species of plants, including Rhododendron, orchid fern, and Rafflesia.
The Kinabalu mountain blackbird and the Kinabalu friendly warbler are the two birds that we cannot find elsewhere in the world. Visitors are mostly come to Kinabalu National Park to climb Mount Kinabalu. We can spot the rare orangutan, proboscis monkeys, pygmy elephant, and saltwater crocodiles during the river cruise. Moreover, the officials designated this national park as Southeast Asia’s Centre of Plant Diversity.
- Area: 291 square miles
- Forest Category: Mountain Rainforest
- Established: 1964
- Country: Asia
- Prominent Wildlife: Proboscis Monkeys and Rhinoceros Beetles
7 Daintree Forest
We know that it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in Australia’s North Queensland. It is the world’s oldest rainforest, and Daintree Forest instructs a level of respect that locals of Australia are satisfied to give in the form of non-invasive tourism. While the Amazonian rainforest may have many diverse plant life, the Daintree forest has several rare florae compared with all the other largest forests on this list.
Another fantastic feature of visiting this rainforest is that it shows a unique characteristic of bordering another UNESCO site, namely the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It has over 3,000 species in Daintree Rainforest, and over 395 are considered rare or threatened species.
Climate change, weed growth, feral animals’ introduction into this rainforest, and residential areas’ development lead to several new ecosystem problems. Moreover, we can find Ulysses butterfly, cassowary, Bennet’s tree kangaroo, and the white-lipped tree frog in Daintree Rainforest. The Mossman River, Bloomfield River, and the Daintree River are the three main rivers in the Daintree forest. There are more than 12,000 different insects’ species.
It is home to plants that can grow in Daintree Rainforest but cannot grow elsewhere in the world. It has the inhabitants such as various venomous snakes, insects, lizards, colorful birds, frogs, mammals, and many scaly reptiles.
People referred to the ancient plants existing in Daintree Rainforest as ‘Green Dinosaurs.’ Around 400,000 people visit this Daintree Rainforest in a year. The wet season of this rainforest starts in December and ends in March or April. The idiot fruit is among the most popular plants in this forest.
- Area: 463 square miles
- Forest Category: Wet Tropics Rainforest
- Established: 1988
- Country: Australia
- Prominent Wildlife: Saltwater Crocodiles and Southern Cassowaries
6 Rainforest of Xishuangbanna
It is one of the most safeguarded tropical rainforests globally, situated in the southwest part of Yunnan Province in Southern China. This forest is divided into more subtypes and consists no under eight kinds of vegetation. From those eight kinds, fifty-eight considered as extremely rare.
It also has more than 3,500 types of scientifically recorded flora as well as fauna. So, Xishuangbanna Rainforest almost acts as a living museum of splendid flora and fauna. This rainforest also allows the Chinese Ecosystem Research Network platform to search the different life forms that create various ecosystems.
The tropical vegetations are abundant in this rainforest. So, it is precious, according to the scientific point of view. It also contains many endangered animal species, such as Indo-Chinese tigers, Asian elephants, and gibbons. Because of the mountains were surrounding the nature reserve, it has a very humid climate. Additionally, it saves from cold north winds, and we can expose to maritime moisture.
Annual precipitation differs from 40 to 80 inches per year. There are plenty of hills and lush, verdant basins between these terrains. We can also find many river crossings, called the Lancang River system. The sheer biodiversity and rarities volume of this forest make them a field day for researchers.
- Area: 927 square miles
- Forest Category: Tropical Rainforest
- Established: 1959
- Country: Asia
- Prominent Wildlife: Asian Elephants, Indo-Chinese Tigers, and Green Peacocks
5 Sundarbans
It is the largest contiguous mangrove forest left in the world. The forest’s forty percentage lies in India, while we can find the other sixty percent in Bangladesh. UNESCO designated this forest as a World Heritage Site and classified it as a “halophytic” rainforest. This classification refers to the highly tolerant of excessive salt content and high levels of water.
The interconnected network of waterways in this forest makes ferries and boats access almost every forest corner. This access provides visitors with a better chance of sightseeing, and we can get thrilled when seeing the exotic magic of the jungle.
The beauty of this national park completes with the Royal Bengal Tiger. The fiery’s hub and the forest’s majestic king is the dense evergreen delta. It is renowned for being the largest deltaic forest globally, also known as the Green Delta. The combination of two famous rivers such as Brahmaputra and Ganga formed this forest. In India and West Bengal, it serves as one of the limited spots for safaris and excursions.
The region has numerous threatened or endangered species. Sundarbans contains around fifty mammal species, nearly 60 species of reptile, more than 300 bird species, and more than 300 species of plant. The Ganges, Brahmaputra, Padma, and Meghna are the main rivers falling in the Bay of Bengal through the Sundarbans.
We can also find snakes and crocodiles that cannot see dense jungle easily. So, staying close to the coast is the better option. UNESCO considered the entire region of the forest as a Biosphere Reserve. In the part of Sundarbans, Bangladesh set up three wildlife sanctuaries in 1997. Thus, it has all the rights to be here in the list of the world’s top ten largest forests.
- Area: 3,900square miles
- Forest Category: Halophytic Mangrove Rainforest
- Established: 1984
- Country: Asia and India
- Prominent Wildlife: Bengal Tiger and Water Monitor Lizard
4 Tongass
Alaska’s Tongass is the largest national forest in America. About a third of the region of this forest managed as complete wilderness. Its glaciers are the biggest tourist attractions in the area. These Tongass forests are the product of uttermost climatic factors.
It is a buffer against climate change, absorbing almost eight percent of the nation’s annual global warming pollution and saving around 10-12 percent of every carbon in the national forests. Sadly, logging and deforestation negatively impacted the size and health of the forest. It becomes one of the few spots where Alaska’s 100,000 glaciers disclose as enormous ice sheets themselves.
There is lovely wildlife spotting. It also has the most extensive and densest concentration of bears commonplace in this area, and we can see creeks fishing, where the fish like Salmon run. Bald Eagles are always present in Alaska, and the Tongass forest contains inhabitants such as otters, beavers, humpback and orca whales, Alexander Archipelago wolves on the planet. It is home to five salmon species, such as king, chum, red, silver, and pink.
Tongass is the best place to visit! People often referred to it as the “Inside Passage” or the gateway to Alaska. You know one thing that commercial fishing, recreation, and tourism are Southeast Alaska’s quickly thriving job sectors. It has a lot of recreational activities, including camping, hiking, boating, and fishing. It is also one of the largest forests.
- Area: 26,278 square miles
- Forest Category: Temperate Rainforest
- Established: September 10, 1907
- Country: North America
- Prominent Wildlife: Orcas, wolves, and beavers
3 Valdivian Temperate Rainforest
We can find this temperate rainforest in South America’s southern part between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific coast. The Valdivian Temperate Rainforest receives a high amount of rainfall. Half of the species of woody plants found in this rainforest are endemic to the area and referred to as eco-regions.
Most of the old-growth species of tree in the Valdivian Temperate Rainforest threatened because of excessive logging. People used to replace eucalyptus and pines after being cut, which are highly useful to companies like logging because they grow swiftly.
Westerlies in the Valdivian Temperate Rainforest help to create a higher amount of rainfall. There are several fascinating creatures such as the smallest cat globally, namely the Kodkod, and the smallest deer globally, the Southern Pudu. The temperate rainforest’s vegetation includes endemic Monkey Puzzle Tree and evergreen trees and understory vegetation like bamboos and massive ferns.
It is among the most beautiful and largest forests globally because it is considered a biogeographic island. This massive forest contains many national parks, lakes, beaches, rivers, islands, and hiking trails. It also has unusual trees, including the Antarctic beech, Alerce.
There are four forest ecosystems within this forest, including the laurel-leafed forests, Patagonian Andean forests, deciduous forests, and the Northern Patagonian forests. The plantation development, logging, and replacement of native tree species with more profitable and quickly growing species are the major threats to the Valdivian Temperate Rainforest.
- Area: 95,800 square miles
- Forest Category: Temperate Rainforest
- Established: Nil
- Country: South America
- Prominent Wildlife: Southern Pudu, Kodkod, and Wild Boars
2 Congo Rainforest
The Congo Rainforest is the world’s second-largest area of rainforest, situated in central Africa. Also, much of this rainforest sits in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Congo rainforest is better known for its massive biodiversity levels, including over 600 species of trees and 10,000 species of animals.
Some of its most famous inhabitants include gorillas, chimpanzees, okapi, forest elephants, leopards, hippos, and lions. Some of these species play an essential role in shaping the character of the forest home of them. The average rainfall of this very rainy rainforest is a little more than fifty-eight inches in a year.
Humans never see many parts of it because the Congo Rainforest has vegetation that is so dense. It is reaching a progressively fragile ecosystem because of a rise in land clearance for agriculture, commercial logging, etc. The countries such as Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Zambia located within its vast basin.
Everyone considered it the “second lung” on the planet, and along with the Amazon, the Congo forest stores almost eight percent of the forest-based carbon in the world. The basin contains numerous ecosystems, including some savanna forests, three extensive lowland forests, a coastal forest, and a swamp forest.
The thick tree canopy of this forest towers at about 100 feet and that generally heavy with flora. A warm climate occurred in this rainforest. A few rainforest parts are very dense, so only one percent of the sunlight reaches the earth.
- Area: 781,249 square miles
- Forest Category: Tropical Rainforest
- Established: late 19th century
- Country: Africa
- Prominent Wildlife: Leopards, Okapi, and Hippos
Related Articles
Top 10 Beautiful Forests in the World
Top 10 Largest Islands In The World
Top 10 Awe-Inspiring Natural Wonders of United States
1 Amazon Rainforest
Amazon Rainforest is the world’s largest forest. This region has more than a million species accounted for in this dense rainforest vast basin. Additionally, it is home to the second-longest and largest river in the world. Idiotic, potentially dangerous, and hot Amazon forest is stunning. It is also a treasure trove of plants and wildlife, like Jaguar, Manatee, Rosewood, and Brazil Nut. The moist, broadleaf Amazon Rainforest is better known for high rainfall, high humidity, and monotonously high temperatures that prevail here.
The Amazon rainforest has around 3,000 fruits, and people in the western world use only 200 of them. However, indigenous tribes consumed over 2000! It is the largest of the rainforests, gives the earth more than 20% of its oxygen. The Amazon Rainforest is a beautiful forest region that consists of millions of miles of trees, unique animals, and rare species of plants and bugs.
Taking up most of the Amazon Basin, it goes across nine South American countries such as Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, and smaller parts of other South American countries. Additionally, it has a wide range of different animals, including mammals, birds, fish, and insects.
Major threats to these rainforests are human encroachment, exploitation, deforestation, and other forms of destruction. More than eight percent of the food we eat came from the Amazon rainforests. Additionally, people considered the Amazon River as the life force of this Amazon rainforest. The loudest creature in the Amazon is the toucan.
It is home to extremely dangerous or venomous snakes like an anaconda, spiders, poisonous dart frogs, jaguars, electric eels, and flesh-eating piranhas vampire bats. It is commonly known as the Amazon Jungle and Amazonia. But the environmentalists are mainly concerned about global warming and loss of biodiversity. Deforestation occurred at the beginning of the 20th century, especially in Brazil, which threatened one of the world’s most famous forests.
- Area: 2,300,000 square miles
- Forest Category: Broadleaf Rainforest
- Established: From 56 million years to 33.9 million years ago
- Country: South America
- Prominent Wildlife: Jaguars and Tapirs
