A detailed analysis of the earth’s trees was made a few years ago. The method for this global effort utilised ground-based sample counts extended to calculations on images from satellites, using sophisticated algorithms (Nature, 2015). The study estimated that our planet has about three trillion trees. The number came as a surprise, as it was much higher than all earlier scholarly estimates. And the satellite images also provided a measure of how these trees are distributed over the earth. The world average works out to a little over 400 trees per human.
South American rainforests contain 15-20% of all the trees on earth. Another large number, mostly conifers, is present in the Boreal forests or Taiga of the Northern latitudes, spread over Canada and Russia. As a result of this profusion of coniferous trees, every Canadian resident has the ‘luxury’ of nearly 9,000 trees.
In sharp contrast, 15 lakh people who live in the Middle Eastern Island nation of Bahrain make do with just 3,100 trees. About five trees per sq. km.
