A team of Yale researchers tasked with mapping the forest ecosystem has counted 3 trillion trees on Earth. The number is far more than previous estimates, which counted 400 billion.

Researcher Thomas Crowther from Yale and his colleagues came to the estimate using ground survey data including national forest inventories as well as satellite pictures to map the forest ecosystem.

According to study researchers:

We provide the first spatially continuous map of forest tree density at a global scale. This map reveals that the global number of trees is approximately 3.04 trillion, an order of magnitude higher than the previous estimate. Of these trees, approximately 1.39 trillion exist in tropical and subtropical forests, with 0.74 trillion in boreal regions and 0.61 trillion in temperate regions.

That’s about 420 trees for every person on Earth.

The estimate will help researchers studying plant and animal habitats as well as climate change. It’s well known that trees play an important role in global climate change through the carbon cycle. Using the process of photosynthesis, trees convert atmospheric CO2 into carbon-rich carbohydrates and sugars to feed themselves. Oxygen, which is critical for human respiration, is a byproduct of the process. We depend on trees to pull carbon from the air in order to maintain an atmospheric balance. Without them, the Earth’s atmosphere will trap too much heat on the planet’s surface, causing temperatures to rise.

“So, it’s not good news for the world or bad news that we’ve produced this new number,” Dr. Crowther said to the BBC. “We’re simply describing the state of the global forest system in numbers that people can understand and that scientists can use, and that environmental practitioners or policymakers can understand and use.”

The study also showed humans are having a negative impact on the world’s trees, removing 15 billion trees a year while only replacing around 5 billion.

“The net loss is about a third of a percent of the current number of trees globally,” said co-author Dr Henry Glick. “That doesn’t seem to be an insignificant portion and should probably give us cause for considering the role that deforestation is playing in changing ecosystems.”

We’ve already removed 3 trillion trees since the last Ice Age 11,000 years ago. However, scientists caution that the study numbers could be inaccurate because much of the data was taken in North America and Europe and there’s not enough data coming from the Congo Basin, Australia, India, and China. Dr. Martin Lukac from the University of Reading contends that this new estimate is far off from previous estimates and that there are too many margins of error.

The highest forest density was found in the Boreal forest, the world’s largest land-based biome. The line of forests encircles the planet just below the Arctic. The Boreal forest covers most of Alaska, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and much of Russia.

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Apple partners with The Conservation Fund to protect our nation’s forests.

The U.S. has more than 420 million acres of working forests and more than 45 million of those acres are at risk of development. Working forests are huge swaths of privately held forests that are often managed for forest products like pulp and timber. But when these working forests are sold, they’re broken up into parcels and sold for commercial purposes. But in an effort to maintain the forests, Apple is partnering with The Conservation Fund on The Working Forest Fund (WFF) to purchase more than 36,000 acres of sustainably managed working forest in Maine and North Carolina.

The working forests are the combined size of San Francisco and will be protected from development through easements, while ensuring that they’re sustainably managed.

“Apple is clearly leading by example—one that we hope others will follow,” said Larry Selzer, president and CEO of The Conservation Fund in a statement. “By all accounts, the loss of America’s working forests is one of our nation’s greatest environmental challenges. The initiative announced today is precedent-setting.”

The partnership will protect 32,400 acres of forest in Aroostook, Maine, an area home to abundant wildlife including Atlantic salmon, bald eagles, northern goshawk, and Canada lynx. The area will remain a sustainably managed forest in an effort to preserve jobs in the area. The other protected area is in the Brunswick Forest in North Carolina. The 3,600 acre area is home to pine and hardwood forests and adjacent to a 17,000 acre swamp preserve. This further expands an already conserved area.

“The status quo for America’s working forests is simply not acceptable,” said Selzer. “We will continue to drive innovative solutions that help ensure their protection and create a sustainable future for generations to come. Today’s announcement is both a turning point and blueprint for forest conservation,” he concluded.

Thus far through The Conservation Fund’s program, 400,000 acres of working forests have been conserved in 13 states. This means that they’re held by easements and if the land is purchased, the conservation easements must be maintained. This way these continuous forests and the habitats that they host will be around for years to come. The lands cannot be broken up into smaller pieces of land and sold for residential and commercial development purposes. It’s a big win for America’s great forests, too many of which have already been cut down.

Apple is also in the process of working with SunPower to build two new 20 megawatt solar farms. According to AppleInsider, “The new facilities will be constructed in China’s southwestern Sichuan province, within Hongyuan and Ruoergai counties in the Aba Tibetan & Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. They will be co-owned by Apple and Sichuan Shengtian New Energy Development Co., a joint venture between SunPower and a consortium of Chinese firms.”Apple seems to be taking major steps to expand its conservation role.

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