Forests

Did you know that 70 per cent of the world's animals depend on forests as their homes? Or that a quarter of medicines we use originate from rainforest plants? Or that 20 per cent of the world's oxygen is produced by the Amazonian rainforest?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 Black Forest of Bavaria, a place imbued with history and legend since ancient times.Presented in a landscape format and 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.