Dec 09, 2025 | written by: Tommaso Ciuffoletti
A well-known 2015 study estimated that there were about 3 trillion trees on our planet - a figure striking for its scale, but one that should be taken as an estimate. Today, thanks to updated FAO data (Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025), we know that forests cover roughly 4.14 billion hectares, or 32% of the Earth’s land surface. However, surviving primary forests amount to about 1.18 billion hectares, and only 20% of the world’s forests are formally protected. Every year, there is a net loss of 4.1 million hectares, despite a significant reduction in the deforestation rate compared to the past. Most forests are publicly owned, and governance strongly influences the protection and future of global greenery. These numbers remind us that trees remain a vital pillar for life on Earth - and that planting new trees remains a concrete and necessary choice for the future.
How Many Trees Are There in the World?
In 2015, an international research team led by Thomas W. Crowther estimated that there were approximately 3.04 trillion trees on Earth. The study combined satellite images, forest inventories, and hundreds of thousands of ground measurements to model global tree density. According to this estimate, there would be an average of about 422 trees per person.
The authors also estimated that since the dawn of our civilization — with the expansion of agriculture and land use — the global number of trees had declined by roughly 46%. This figure remains useful — not as a precise, static number, but as a starting point to understand the global scale of tree cover, its loss over centuries, and the urgency of care, protection, and reforestation.
How Many Forests Are There?
The FAO 2025 report on the state of global forests shows that today, forests cover roughly 4.14 billion hectares, or about a third of the Earth’s land surface, averaging approximately 0.5 hectares per person.
Of this, at least 1.18 billion hectares are classified as primary forests — areas where tree ecosystems have largely remained intact, with native species and natural ecological processes. Planted forests account for roughly 8% of the world’s forest cover (around 312 million hectares) and are growing in many regions, although the expansion rate has slowed.
Despite the improvement in the loss rate compared to the past, pressure remains high. The annual rate of net forest loss (that is, net deforestation: deforestation minus reforestation) for the period 2015–2025 is estimated at around 4.12 million hectares per year, a sharp decline from the more than 10 million hectares per year recorded in the 1990s.
As for gross deforestation, the rate is about 10.9 million hectares per year — still very high, even though it has decreased from the 17.6 million per year recorded between 1990 and 2000.
Even if the pace is slowing, deforestation continues to remain dramatically in the red.
Protection and Management
Not all forests are equal — and not all are formally protected. The FAO report indicates that only about 20% of the world’s forests (approximately 813 million hectares) fall within legally established protected areas, such as parks, reserves, or conservation zones.
In addition to protection, management is also important. About 2.13 billion hectares of forest (more than half of the total) are formally managed with long-term forestry plans — a sign of growing awareness about sustainability — although there remain questions about the actual implementation of these plans.
Regarding ownership, the majority of forests — around 71% — are publicly owned; 24% are privately owned; the remainder falls under other forms or has no declared ownership. The combination of ownership, protection, and management is essential: it is here that real conservation, regeneration, reforestation, and sustainable use depend.
Experience suggests that hybrid models, which involve local communities in forest management while allowing measured, responsible use, may offer the best response to the increasingly complex challenge of human-forest coexistence.
Beyond the Numbers
Trees and forests are not simply “green spaces”: they are vital machines. Through photosynthesis, they convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, regulate the climate, maintain the water cycle, stabilize soils, and host biodiversity. (This role — often called a natural “technology” — has long been one of the pillars of those who see trees as an investment in the future.)
Knowing that billions of hectares of forests still exist, and that a significant portion is primary and protected, offers concrete hope. But knowing that we lose millions of hectares every year, that many primary forests are declining, and that only 20% are legally protected, is a warning: nature is not inexhaustible, and every portion of greenery must be safeguarded.
Deforestation also carries the risk of permanently losing tree species we might never see again. Protecting endangered tree species is a responsibility we owe to future generations.
Not just forests
A point often overlooked: not all trees grow in dense, easily mapped forests. Many thrive in mixed landscapes — wooded savannas, agroforests, rural or urban areas, hedgerows, field margins, riverside trees, and peri-urban zones.
This means that forest statistics — area, loss, protection — do not tell the whole story: there are “scattered” or “invisible” trees, by traditional definitions, that still perform vital functions for ecosystems and communities.
For those who believe in responsible reforestation and the value of dispersed trees, this “diffuse” tree network is often as important as large primary forests.
Planting With Care and Love
The numbers — global forest area, primary forests, protected areas, and loss rates — tell the story of a planet that remains green but is under pressure. Every year, we lose millions of hectares: forests and tree species that may be lost forever and will not return on their own.
But these numbers also give us tools: to understand where to act, how to protect, and where to plant. Because every tree counts. Every forest counts. And every new plant — growing today, perhaps thanks to a project like Treedom — is a seed of hope, a tangible step toward a greener, more sustainable future rooted in collective responsibility.
