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Pan American Experiences
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From the ancient temperate rainforests of North America to the tropical jungles of Central and South America and the millennial forests of Patagonia, these surviving primary forests preserve some of the hemisphere’s most extraordinary landscapes and ecosystems.
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Visit the Remaining Primary Forests of the HemisphereSeven Remarkable Surviving Forests Across the AmericasBy Marbel Montoya for Ruta Pantera on 8/25/2026 1:11:24 PM |
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| The forests of the Americas have changed dramatically over the last several centuries. Agriculture, urban development, logging, mining, roads, and other forms of land conversion have transformed enormous areas of the original forest. But the story is not simply one of disappearance. Vast landscapes still survive where natural forest ecosystems continue to function on an extraordinary scale, from the cool temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest to the tropical forests of the Amazon and the ancient forests of Patagonia.
Before identifying the forests travelers should experience, it is important to clarify what “primary forest” actually means. Primary forest, old-growth forest, and intact forest are related but not identical concepts. The FAO defines primary forest as naturally regenerated forest of native species where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities and ecological processes have not been significantly disturbed. According to the FAO’s 2025 Global Forest Resources Assessment, primary forests represented approximately 33% of the world’s forests in 2025. North America contained about 278 million hectares of primary forest, while South America contained approximately 299 million hectares. This distinction also changes how we should understand the claim that as much as 40% of America’s original forests have been destroyed by fire. It would be misleading to equate forest burned by wildfire with forest permanently lost. Fire is a natural ecological process in many North American forests, and a burned forest can regenerate. Deforestation is different: it is the permanent conversion of forest to another land use. The latest FAO assessment estimates that approximately 14% of U.S. forest area is classified as primary forest, while Canada has a much larger proportion, at approximately 54%. Canada therefore presents a very different picture from the United States. The country still has enormous expanses of forest, and less than 0.5% of its forest area has been deforested since 1990. That does not mean Canadian forests are untouched: logging, wildfire, insects, climate change, and other disturbances continue to reshape the landscape. But the scale of remaining forest is extraordinary. Farther south, the situation varies considerably. Central America has lost and fragmented substantial areas of its original tropical forests, but major protected landscapes remain. South America still contains enormous quantities of primary forest, particularly in the Amazon Basin. The FAO estimates that approximately 49% of South America’s forest area is primary forest, although forest loss and degradation remain major concerns in parts of the continent. |
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1. Great Bear Rainforest | British Columbia, Canada
Along the northern and central coast of British Columbia lies one of the planet’s great surviving temperate rainforests. Great Bear Rainforest covers approximately 6.4 million hectares, stretching from the Discovery Islands toward the British Columbia–Alaska border. The landscape is defined by enormous trees, fjords, islands, rivers, mountains, and a coastline where forests appear to rise directly from the Pacific. It is also the traditional territory of numerous First Nations, making conservation inseparable from Indigenous culture and stewardship. For travelers, the experience can include kayaking, wildlife viewing, hiking, boat excursions, and visits to coastal communities. Bears, whales, sea lions, eagles, and salmon are part of an ecosystem in which the forest and ocean are deeply interconnected. This is perhaps one of the clearest places in the hemisphere to understand that an ancient forest is not simply a collection of old trees. It is an entire living landscape extending from mountain slopes to the sea. 2. Tongass National Forest | Alaska, United States In southeastern Alaska, Tongass National Forest protects almost 17 million acres of temperate rainforest, making it the largest national forest in the United States. The Forest Service describes Tongass as the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest, with less than 8% of its land developed. The forest is an immense archipelago of islands, fjords, mountains, glaciers, rivers, and old-growth forest. Some trees can live for more than 500 years, and approximately 90% of the old-growth forests documented in one Forest Service account remained as they were a century ago. Tongass is best experienced from the water and from its extensive network of trails. Kayaking, boating, hiking, wildlife viewing, and fishing provide opportunities to understand how forests, salmon streams, glaciers, and coastal ecosystems function together. The result is one of the most powerful wilderness experiences in North America: a place where the forest can feel almost endless and where the boundary between land and ocean is constantly changing. 3. Olympic National Park | Washington, United States At the northwestern edge of the United States, Olympic National Park protects some of the country's finest remaining examples of temperate rainforest. The park contains extensive old-growth forests and several major rainforest valleys, including Hoh, Quinault, Queets, and Bogachiel. The Hoh Rain Forest is particularly famous for its extraordinary moisture. Giant Sitka spruce, western hemlock, red cedar, mosses, ferns, and fallen trees create a landscape that can feel more like a tropical rainforest than the Pacific Northwest many travelers imagine. The experience here is remarkably accessible. Visitors can walk beneath enormous trees, follow moss-covered trails, listen to streams flowing through the forest, and observe how fallen trees become part of the next generation of life. For travelers who want to experience an ancient forest without traveling deep into a remote wilderness, Olympic offers one of the most extraordinary introductions in North America. 4. Darién National Park | Panama At the eastern edge of Panama, near the Colombian border, Darién National Park protects approximately 575,000 hectares and is one of the largest and most valuable protected areas in Central America. UNESCO describes the park as containing beaches, mangroves, wetlands, rivers, lowland rainforest, and mountain forests, including the most extensive lowland rainforest on the Pacific coast of Central America. Darién is also a biological bridge between North and South America. Its forests support jaguars, tapirs, spider monkeys, harpy eagles, macaws, amphibians, reptiles, and hundreds of bird species. UNESCO has documented 533 bird species and 169 mammal species within the park, among many other forms of biodiversity. This is a very different travel experience from visiting a heavily developed national park. Darién is remote, access can involve rivers and local communities, and travelers should use experienced local operators and follow current safety and conservation guidance. The difficulty of reaching parts of Darién is part of what has helped preserve its extraordinary character. This is wilderness in the traditional sense: large, humid, difficult to access, and still shaped primarily by natural processes. 5. Yasuní National Park | Ecuador Deep in Ecuador’s Amazon, Yasuní National Park protects one of the most biologically extraordinary regions of the continent. The Yasuní Biosphere Reserve covers approximately 2.7 million hectares, with tropical rainforest dominating the landscape. UNESCO describes the region as containing extensive primary forests and exceptional diversity of plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Yasuní is also a place where biodiversity and culture are inseparable. Kichwa and Waorani communities live in the region, and some areas are associated with Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation. Tourism therefore requires particular respect for local communities and areas where access is restricted. Visitors can experience the forest through guided walks, canoeing, wildlife observation, birdwatching, and interpretation of the rainforest ecosystem. The experience is not about checking animals off a list; it is about entering a landscape where the sheer density of life becomes the attraction. Yasuní demonstrates why the Amazon remains so important to the future of the hemisphere. Its value is not only measured by the number of trees it contains but by the enormous network of species, rivers, soils, cultures, and ecological relationships supported by the forest. 6. Utría National Natural Park | Chocó, Colombia On Colombia’s Pacific coast, Utría National Natural Park protects a remarkable combination of tropical rainforest, mangroves, estuaries, beaches, cliffs, and marine ecosystems. Located in the Chocó Biogeographic region, one of the wettest and most biodiverse areas of the Americas, the park connects rainforest directly with the Pacific Ocean. The experience is particularly powerful because the forest seems to reach almost to the sea. Visitors can hike, explore waterways, observe birds and wildlife, and, during the appropriate season, watch humpback whales that arrive in the Pacific waters to reproduce and raise their young. The park can be explored through authorized routes and local services, and travelers should respect conservation regulations and community guidelines. The combination of rainforest, ocean, wildlife, and Indigenous and Afro-Colombian cultural landscapes makes Utría one of Colombia’s most remarkable wilderness destinations. For travelers based in Colombia, it also offers a particularly accessible opportunity to experience one of the hemisphere’s great tropical forest regions without traveling to the Amazon. 7. Los Alerces National Park | Patagonia, Argentina At the southern end of the journey, Los Alerces National Park offers a completely different vision of an ancient forest. Located in Patagonia, its forests belong to the Valdivian temperate rainforest ecosystem and contain some of the most intact examples of this forest type in southern South America. The park’s great symbol is the alerce, a slow-growing tree capable of living for thousands of years. In the Alerzal Milenario sector near Lake Menéndez, visitors can encounter alerce trees estimated to be approximately 2,600 years old and nearly 60 meters tall. The forest is surrounded by turquoise lakes, clear rivers, mountains, and glaciers, creating a landscape that feels very different from the tropical forests farther north. UNESCO recognizes Los Alerces as a World Heritage property because of its important areas of largely pristine Patagonian forest. Walking beneath trees that were already growing more than two thousand years ago changes the meaning of the word “old.” Here, the forest becomes a living timeline, connecting the present traveler with a landscape that existed long before modern borders, roads, or cities. What Is Really Left of the Original Forests? The answer depends on what we mean by “original.” If we are talking about forest cover, North and South America still contain enormous areas of forest. If we are talking specifically about primary forest, the proportion is considerably smaller and varies dramatically between countries. Canada retains an exceptionally large share, the United States a much smaller proportion, and South America still contains an enormous concentration of primary forest, particularly within the Amazon Basin. It is also essential to remember that a burned forest is not necessarily a lost forest. Fire is a natural part of many ecosystems, and some forests depend on periodic fires for regeneration. Permanent conversion of forest to agriculture, infrastructure, mining, or urban development is a different process. This distinction is especially important when discussing the future of North American forests. The greatest concern is therefore not simply the number of trees that disappear. It is the loss of entire functioning landscapes: forests large enough to support wildlife populations, watersheds, migrations, nutrient cycles, Indigenous cultures, and ecological processes that cannot simply be recreated by planting new trees. The Journey Worth Taking These seven forests represent seven radically different versions of the American forest: the cool coastal rainforest of Great Bear, the fjords and ancient trees of Tongass, the moss-covered rainforest of Olympic, the tropical wilderness of Darién, the extraordinary biodiversity of Yasuní, the rainforest-and-ocean landscape of Colombia’s Chocó, and the millennial forests of Patagonia. The experience is not simply about walking among trees. It is listening to rivers, watching wildlife move through the canopy, seeing a fallen tree become habitat for new life, navigating rainforest waterways, learning from local communities, and understanding that primary forest is a living system that can take centuries—or even millennia—to develop. For travelers, visiting these places also comes with a responsibility. Stay on authorized trails, never feed wildlife, minimize waste, respect Indigenous and local communities, follow protected-area regulations, and choose responsible local operators. Tourism should help create reasons to protect these landscapes rather than becoming another pressure on them. The remaining primary forests of the hemisphere are not museums frozen in the past. They continue to grow, die, regenerate, burn, flood, and evolve. That is precisely why they are worth experiencing now—not to see something preserved outside of time, but to enter some of the most complex and ancient living systems that still function at a landscape scale. |
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References: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2025). Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025. FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2025). Canada Forest Resources Assessment. FAO Canada Forest Data Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2025). United States Forest Resources Assessment. FAO United States Forest Data Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2025).South America Forest Resources Assessment. FAO South America Forest Data Government of British Columbia. Great Bear Rainforest U.S. Forest Service. Tongass National Forest UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Darién National Park |
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