Photographic celebration of the world's forests packed with stunning images

From coastal to alpine, tropical to temperate, coniferous to deciduous, forest trees not only support the wildlife that lives under their canopies, but humankind, too. We could not survive without the cooling effect that trees have on the planet.
Yet for thousands of years, we have logged forest trees and tapped their resin, we have hunted and foraged among them, found sources of medicine in their leaves and bark, and created sacred groves under their canopies. In some places we have cleared so much land that it is possible the trees will never grow back. Habitats have been lost as global temperatures have continued to rise.
But, despite the environmental damage, there is hope, too. Some areas of abandoned farmland have been reclaimed by trees. And if we look to the Mayan ruins in Mexico, we see how forests can bury even a society’s grandest buildings. Given the opportunity, forests won’t just outlive us, but our civilisations, too.
In this book, Kieron Connolly surveys forests from all around the globe, from deforestation in the Amazon to the reforestation of Californian redwoods, from England’s New Forest to Germany’s Black Forest, telling the stories of humankind’s ancient links to the trees and the flora and fauna found among them.
Ranging from ecology to history, from the ravaged to the rewilded, and featuring more than 230 striking photographs, Forests is a fascinating exploration of woodland life around the world.

Forests cover a third of our planet’s land mass. They are home to more than three-quarters of the world’s species. They absorb a quarter of the carbon dioxide that industries pump into the air. Their existence supports human life. We both treasure them and waste them. Illustrated with more than 180 photographs, Forests is a pictorial exploration of an ancient ecosystem that covers four billion hectares of the Earth’s surface and whose maintenance is crucial to human survival. Divided into chapters by continent and arranged by country, Forests examines diverse forest environments, including: the weird and distinctive Dragon’s Blood Forest, Socotra, Yemen; the Borneo rainforest, home to more than 15,000 plant species, 380 bird species and the famous orangutan, or “jungle man”; the “Crooked Forest” near Nowe Czarnowo, Poland, where a grove of oddly-shaped pine trees have a mysterious origin; Cathedral Grove, an ancient Douglas fir ecosystem 9m (29ft) in circumference and 75m (250ft) in height on Vancouver Island in British Columbia; and the ancient German Black Forest, a place imbued with history and legend since ancient times. With more than 180 outstanding photographs of forests and their flora and fauna, Forests will excite and captivate those who love exploring the world’s woodland environments.