Top 10 Largest Forests In the World
Trees are essential elements in nature that every species on earth is dependent on forests. According to Wikipedia, Rainforests are described by a closed and continual tree canopy, moisture-dependent greenery, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Forests provides shelter to wild animals and for human beings it serves as a source of food and habitat. Rainforests are also accountable for 28% of the world's oxygen production, processing it through photosynthesis from carbon dioxide and absorbing it through respiration.
Rainforest can be categorized as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest, but other types have been described that comprises subtropical rainforest, littoral rainforest, cloud forest, vine thicket and even dry rainforest. Tropical rainforests encompasses many millions of species of plants, insects and microorganisms that still undiscovered. Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth" and the "world's largest pharmacy", because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered there. Tropical forests cover a large part of the globe, but temperate rainforests only exist in few regions around the world. Temperate rainforests are rainforests in temperate regions.
After the spread of human civilisation,
millions of hectares of rainforests as well as endemic rainforest species are quickly fading away due to deforestation, the resulting habitat loss and pollution of the atmosphere. Rainforests comprises more than half of the world's species of plants and animals and home to 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity including flora and fauna. Rainforests encompasses a very broad array of fauna, including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and invertebrates and forests cover over 31% of the world’s land area.
Rainforest can be categorized as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest, but other types have been described that comprises subtropical rainforest, littoral rainforest, cloud forest, vine thicket and even dry rainforest. Tropical rainforests encompasses many millions of species of plants, insects and microorganisms that still undiscovered. Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth" and the "world's largest pharmacy", because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered there. Tropical forests cover a large part of the globe, but temperate rainforests only exist in few regions around the world. Temperate rainforests are rainforests in temperate regions.
After the spread of human civilisation,
millions of hectares of rainforests as well as endemic rainforest species are quickly fading away due to deforestation, the resulting habitat loss and pollution of the atmosphere. Rainforests comprises more than half of the world's species of plants and animals and home to 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity including flora and fauna. Rainforests encompasses a very broad array of fauna, including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and invertebrates and forests cover over 31% of the world’s land area.
10. Daintree Rainforest :-
The Daintree Rainforest is a region located on the northeast coast of Queensland, Australia, north of Mossman and Cairns. With around 1,200 km² area, the Daintree is a part of the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest on the Australian continent and the tenth-largest rainforest in the world. The Daintree Rainforest is a part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland Rainforest and it is the oldest frequently withstanding tropical rainforest in the world.
The Daintree Rainforest extends across the Cairns Region and extends along the coastline north of the Daintree River, tropical forest grows right down to the edge of the sea. The Daintree Rainforest is home to 30% of the frog, reptile and marsupial species in Australia, and 90% of Australia's bat and butterfly species, 7% of bird species. Also over 12,000 species of insects are found in the rainforest. All of this diversity is comprised within an area that takes up 0.12% of the landmass of Australia.
Sundarbans is a mangrove area located in the delta formed by the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers located in the Bay of Bengal. The Sundarbans mangrove forest encompasses an area of about 10,000 km², making it the ninth-largest rainforest in the world, of which forests in Bangladesh's Khulna Division extend over 6,017 km² and in West Bengal, they extend over 4,260 km².
It spans from the Hooghly River in India's state of West Bengal to the Baleswar River in Bangladesh's district of Khulna. It comprises closed and open mangrove forests, land utilized for agricultural purposes, mudflats and barren land, and is divided by multiple tidal streams and channels.
Sundarbans is home to a total of 245 genera and 334 plant species. The varieties of the forests that exist in Sundarbans comprise mangrove scrub, littoral forest, saltwater mixed forest, brackish water mixed forest and swamp forest, with abundant tree species like sundry and news. The forest is home to 453 fauna wildlife, including 290 birds, 120 fish, 42 mammals, 35 reptiles and eight amphibian species.
The Rainforest of Xishuangbanna is a tropical rainforest found in the Yunnan Province of China. With around 19,223 km² area, it is one of the largest forests in Asia and the eighth-largest forest in the world. The tropical seasonal rain forest in Xishuangbanna is one of the most species-rich forest ecosystems in China. This area is also one of the biodiversity hotspots for conservation preferences of the world. Xishuangbanna is comprised of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspots. The forest is situated at the northern margin of tropical mainland SE Asia and is controlled by a monsoon climate.
The tropical rainforest of Xishuangbanna can be distributed into two vegetation subtypes about tropical rainforest vegetation, the tropical seasonal rainforest and the tropical montane rainforest. The forest contains over 5,000 species of vascular plants, comprising 16% of China’s total plant diversity. This rainforest is home to a very diverse fauna of birds, mammals, and reptiles, and amphibians, which represent 36%, 21%, and 14% of China’s biodiversity, respectively. The area gives shelter to Asian elephants, Indo-Chinese tigers, and green peacocks. Five thousand of many kinds of tropical plants and animals in Xishuangbanna existing in nearly two square kilometres of land.
The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra comprises three Indonesian national parks on the island of Sumatra: Gunung Leuser National Park, Kerinci Seblat National Park and the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra site was dedicated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004. With around 25,000 km² area, tropical rainforest is the seventh-largest rainforest in the world. The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra consists of three national parks: Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP), Kerinci Seblat National Park (KSNP) and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (BBSNP) occupying areas of 8629.75 km², 13,753.5 km² and 3568 km² respectively.
Gunung Leuser National Park located in the north of the island is 150 km long, over 100 km wide and is largely mountainous. Kerinci Seblat National Park located in the centre expands 350 km down the back of the Bukit Barisan, averaging 45 km width and 2000 m above sea level. Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park is also 350 km long but only 45 km wide on average. The northern two-thirds are rocky. The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra is home to 85 mammal species, 5 endemic and 370 species of birds, 13 being endemic and 58 threatened. Some important mammal species include Bornean clouded leopard, Asian tapir, and Sumatran rhino. The population of Sumatran tigers in the Kerinci Seblat National Park is the highest listed, making it one of the 12 Globally Important Tiger Conservation Landscapes. Several important bird species include white-winged wood duck and Sumatran ground-cuckoo.
The Pacific temperate rainforests ecoregion located in North America is the largest temperate rain forest ecoregion on the planet. Pacific temperate rainforests ecoregion is the sixth-largest rainforest in the world. The Pacific Temperate Rainforest containing five sub-eco-regions including the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia's coastal forests, Northern Pacific coastal forests, Central Pacific coastal forests, and the Northern California coastal forests. These five eco-regions of this temperate forest group make up the only temperate rainforests in North America.
The Pacific temperate rain forests extend along the western side of the Pacific Coast Ranges along the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America from the Prince William Sound in Alaska through the British Columbia Coast to Northern California, and are part of the Nearctic realm, as also defined by the World Wildlife Fund.
They extend from Prince William Sound in Alaska to Northern California. It is home to the endangered spotted owls, other wildlife species like the bald eagle, marbled murrelet, wolf, and Sitka deer.
The Tongass National Forest, forest region and wilderness area are located in Southeast Alaska. With around 68,000 km² area, Tongass National Forest is the fifth-largest rainforest in the world and It is the largest U.S. National Forest and the world’s largest remaining temperate rainforest. The Tongass, which is governed by the United States Forest Service. Tongass National Forest was established in 1907 by an executive order issued by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt. Tongass National Forest covers most of the Alaska panhandle and is the largest publicly owned forest in the United States. The forest was named for a Tlingit Indian group.
The Tongass comprises islands of the Alexander Archipelago, fjords and glaciers, and peaks of the Coast Mountains. Most of its area is temperate rainforest and is isolated adequately to be home to many species of endangered and rare flora and fauna. The forest includes blueberries, skunk cabbages, and a profusion of ferns and mosses. Brown and black bears, Sitka black-tailed deer, wolves, mountain goats, river otters, mink, northern flying squirrels, seals, and numerous species of birds—including bald eagles, northern goshawks, and the elusive marbled murrelet—are part of the unusual variety of wildlife.
The Valdivian temperate forest is a rain forest located on the west coast of southern South America, in Chile and extending into Argentina. It is part of the Neotropical realm. The forests are called after the city of Valdivia. The Valdivian temperate forest is the fourth-largest rainforest in the world. The Valdivian temperate rainforests are described as dense understories of bamboos, ferns, and for being mostly overlooked by evergreen angiosperm trees with some deciduous specimens, though conifer trees are also common.
Valdivian temperate forests extend along Chilean matorral, Magellanic subpolar forests, Patagonian steppe and Southern Andean steppe. The Valdivian temperate rain forests are temperate broadleaf and mixed forests. The Valdivian and Magellanic temperate rainforests are the only temperate rain forests in South America and one of a small number of temperate rain forests in the world. Together they are the second largest in the world, after the Pacific temperate rain forests of North America. The Valdivian temperate forest is home to some of the threatened mammals of the Valdivian forests include the monito del monte, an arboreal marsupial, the southern pudú the world's smallest deer, and the kodkod, South America's smallest cat.
The Atlantic Forest is a South American forest located in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay. With around a 1,315,460 km² area, Atlantic Forest is the third-largest rainforest in the world. Atlantic Forest extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to the Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina. The Atlantic Forest has ecoregions within the following biome categories that include seasonal moist and dry broad-leaf tropical forests, tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, and mangrove forests. The Atlantic Forest mainly encompasses regions of eastern Brazil but also touches eastern Paraguay and northeastern Argentina.
While most of the Mata Atlântica lines the eastern coast of Brazil, the forest complex also extends to three other countries Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. The Mata Atlântica is present in 13 of Brazil's 26 states, spreading into the inner from fifty to several hundred kilometres and increasing as high as 2,000 meters. It circulates far into eastern Paraguay, encloses a part of northeastern Argentina, and just touches the Uruguay coast. Atlantic Forest is home to over 52% of the tree species and 92% of the amphibians are endemic to Atlantic Forest. The forest has around 20,000 species of plants, with almost 450 tree species being found in just one hectare on some occasions. It also provides shelter to 264 mammals, 1,000 species of birds, over 750 species of reptiles and amphibians. A study of a single hectare in Bahia found 450 tree species.
The Mongolian rainforests are tropical moist broadleaf forests that extend across the basin of the Congo River and its tributaries in Central Africa. Mongolian rainforests are the second-largest rainforest in the world following the Amazon. The Mongolian rainforest is the world's second-largest tropical forest, traverses six countries, and contains a quarter of the world's remaining tropical forest. The Mongolian forests are shared by nine countries including Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia. Of these countries, DRC comprises the largest area of rainforest, with 107 million hectares, amounting to 60 per cent of Central Africa's lowland forest cover.
There are nearly 10, 000 species of tropical plants in the Congo Basin and 30 per cent are unique to the region and 10,000 animal species. It is inhabited by elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, okapi, leopards, hippos, lions, forest elephants, chimpanzees, bonobos, and lowland and mountain gorillas. 400 other species of mammals, 1,000 species of birds and 700 species of fish can also be found here.
The Amazon rainforest is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin comprises 7,000,000 km² of which 5,500,000 km² are covered by the rainforest, making it the largest rainforest in the world. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's lasting rainforests and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world. Amazon rainforest covers some 40 per cent of the South American continent. It is bordered by the Guiana Highlands to the north, the Andes Mountains to the west, the Brazilian central plateau to the south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.
This region includes territory belonging to nine nations and 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories. The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 58.4% of the rainforest, followed by
Peru with 12.8%, Bolivia with 7.7%, Colombia with 7.1%, Venezuela with 6.1%, Guyana with 3.1%, Suriname with 2.5%, French Guyana with 1.4%, and Ecuador with 1%. Four nations have "Amazonas" as the name of one of their first-level administrative regions, and France uses the name "Guiana Amazonian Park" for its rainforest protected area. Amazon rainforest comprises an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species. Amazon rainforest is home to a wide variety of trees, including many species of myrtle, laurel, palm, and acacia, as well as rosewood, Brazil nut, and rubber tree, mahogany and the Amazonian cedar. Major wildlife includes jaguar, manatee, tapir, red deer, capybara and many other types of rodents, and several types of monkeys.
The Daintree Rainforest extends across the Cairns Region and extends along the coastline north of the Daintree River, tropical forest grows right down to the edge of the sea. The Daintree Rainforest is home to 30% of the frog, reptile and marsupial species in Australia, and 90% of Australia's bat and butterfly species, 7% of bird species. Also over 12,000 species of insects are found in the rainforest. All of this diversity is comprised within an area that takes up 0.12% of the landmass of Australia.
9. Sundarbans :-
Sundarbans is a mangrove area located in the delta formed by the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers located in the Bay of Bengal. The Sundarbans mangrove forest encompasses an area of about 10,000 km², making it the ninth-largest rainforest in the world, of which forests in Bangladesh's Khulna Division extend over 6,017 km² and in West Bengal, they extend over 4,260 km².
It spans from the Hooghly River in India's state of West Bengal to the Baleswar River in Bangladesh's district of Khulna. It comprises closed and open mangrove forests, land utilized for agricultural purposes, mudflats and barren land, and is divided by multiple tidal streams and channels.
Sundarbans is home to a total of 245 genera and 334 plant species. The varieties of the forests that exist in Sundarbans comprise mangrove scrub, littoral forest, saltwater mixed forest, brackish water mixed forest and swamp forest, with abundant tree species like sundry and news. The forest is home to 453 fauna wildlife, including 290 birds, 120 fish, 42 mammals, 35 reptiles and eight amphibian species.
8. Rainforest of Xishuangbanna :-
The Rainforest of Xishuangbanna is a tropical rainforest found in the Yunnan Province of China. With around 19,223 km² area, it is one of the largest forests in Asia and the eighth-largest forest in the world. The tropical seasonal rain forest in Xishuangbanna is one of the most species-rich forest ecosystems in China. This area is also one of the biodiversity hotspots for conservation preferences of the world. Xishuangbanna is comprised of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspots. The forest is situated at the northern margin of tropical mainland SE Asia and is controlled by a monsoon climate.
The tropical rainforest of Xishuangbanna can be distributed into two vegetation subtypes about tropical rainforest vegetation, the tropical seasonal rainforest and the tropical montane rainforest. The forest contains over 5,000 species of vascular plants, comprising 16% of China’s total plant diversity. This rainforest is home to a very diverse fauna of birds, mammals, and reptiles, and amphibians, which represent 36%, 21%, and 14% of China’s biodiversity, respectively. The area gives shelter to Asian elephants, Indo-Chinese tigers, and green peacocks. Five thousand of many kinds of tropical plants and animals in Xishuangbanna existing in nearly two square kilometres of land.
7. Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra :-
The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra comprises three Indonesian national parks on the island of Sumatra: Gunung Leuser National Park, Kerinci Seblat National Park and the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra site was dedicated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004. With around 25,000 km² area, tropical rainforest is the seventh-largest rainforest in the world. The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra consists of three national parks: Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP), Kerinci Seblat National Park (KSNP) and Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (BBSNP) occupying areas of 8629.75 km², 13,753.5 km² and 3568 km² respectively.
Gunung Leuser National Park located in the north of the island is 150 km long, over 100 km wide and is largely mountainous. Kerinci Seblat National Park located in the centre expands 350 km down the back of the Bukit Barisan, averaging 45 km width and 2000 m above sea level. Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park is also 350 km long but only 45 km wide on average. The northern two-thirds are rocky. The Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra is home to 85 mammal species, 5 endemic and 370 species of birds, 13 being endemic and 58 threatened. Some important mammal species include Bornean clouded leopard, Asian tapir, and Sumatran rhino. The population of Sumatran tigers in the Kerinci Seblat National Park is the highest listed, making it one of the 12 Globally Important Tiger Conservation Landscapes. Several important bird species include white-winged wood duck and Sumatran ground-cuckoo.
6. Pacific temperate rainforests :-
The Pacific temperate rainforests ecoregion located in North America is the largest temperate rain forest ecoregion on the planet. Pacific temperate rainforests ecoregion is the sixth-largest rainforest in the world. The Pacific Temperate Rainforest containing five sub-eco-regions including the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia's coastal forests, Northern Pacific coastal forests, Central Pacific coastal forests, and the Northern California coastal forests. These five eco-regions of this temperate forest group make up the only temperate rainforests in North America.
The Pacific temperate rain forests extend along the western side of the Pacific Coast Ranges along the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America from the Prince William Sound in Alaska through the British Columbia Coast to Northern California, and are part of the Nearctic realm, as also defined by the World Wildlife Fund.
They extend from Prince William Sound in Alaska to Northern California. It is home to the endangered spotted owls, other wildlife species like the bald eagle, marbled murrelet, wolf, and Sitka deer.
5. Tongass National Forest :-
The Tongass National Forest, forest region and wilderness area are located in Southeast Alaska. With around 68,000 km² area, Tongass National Forest is the fifth-largest rainforest in the world and It is the largest U.S. National Forest and the world’s largest remaining temperate rainforest. The Tongass, which is governed by the United States Forest Service. Tongass National Forest was established in 1907 by an executive order issued by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt. Tongass National Forest covers most of the Alaska panhandle and is the largest publicly owned forest in the United States. The forest was named for a Tlingit Indian group.
The Tongass comprises islands of the Alexander Archipelago, fjords and glaciers, and peaks of the Coast Mountains. Most of its area is temperate rainforest and is isolated adequately to be home to many species of endangered and rare flora and fauna. The forest includes blueberries, skunk cabbages, and a profusion of ferns and mosses. Brown and black bears, Sitka black-tailed deer, wolves, mountain goats, river otters, mink, northern flying squirrels, seals, and numerous species of birds—including bald eagles, northern goshawks, and the elusive marbled murrelet—are part of the unusual variety of wildlife.
4. Valdivian temperate forest :-
The Valdivian temperate forest is a rain forest located on the west coast of southern South America, in Chile and extending into Argentina. It is part of the Neotropical realm. The forests are called after the city of Valdivia. The Valdivian temperate forest is the fourth-largest rainforest in the world. The Valdivian temperate rainforests are described as dense understories of bamboos, ferns, and for being mostly overlooked by evergreen angiosperm trees with some deciduous specimens, though conifer trees are also common.
Valdivian temperate forests extend along Chilean matorral, Magellanic subpolar forests, Patagonian steppe and Southern Andean steppe. The Valdivian temperate rain forests are temperate broadleaf and mixed forests. The Valdivian and Magellanic temperate rainforests are the only temperate rain forests in South America and one of a small number of temperate rain forests in the world. Together they are the second largest in the world, after the Pacific temperate rain forests of North America. The Valdivian temperate forest is home to some of the threatened mammals of the Valdivian forests include the monito del monte, an arboreal marsupial, the southern pudú the world's smallest deer, and the kodkod, South America's smallest cat.
3. Atlantic Forest :-
The Atlantic Forest is a South American forest located in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay. With around a 1,315,460 km² area, Atlantic Forest is the third-largest rainforest in the world. Atlantic Forest extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to the Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina. The Atlantic Forest has ecoregions within the following biome categories that include seasonal moist and dry broad-leaf tropical forests, tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, and mangrove forests. The Atlantic Forest mainly encompasses regions of eastern Brazil but also touches eastern Paraguay and northeastern Argentina.
While most of the Mata Atlântica lines the eastern coast of Brazil, the forest complex also extends to three other countries Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. The Mata Atlântica is present in 13 of Brazil's 26 states, spreading into the inner from fifty to several hundred kilometres and increasing as high as 2,000 meters. It circulates far into eastern Paraguay, encloses a part of northeastern Argentina, and just touches the Uruguay coast. Atlantic Forest is home to over 52% of the tree species and 92% of the amphibians are endemic to Atlantic Forest. The forest has around 20,000 species of plants, with almost 450 tree species being found in just one hectare on some occasions. It also provides shelter to 264 mammals, 1,000 species of birds, over 750 species of reptiles and amphibians. A study of a single hectare in Bahia found 450 tree species.
2. Mongolian rainforests :-
The Mongolian rainforests are tropical moist broadleaf forests that extend across the basin of the Congo River and its tributaries in Central Africa. Mongolian rainforests are the second-largest rainforest in the world following the Amazon. The Mongolian rainforest is the world's second-largest tropical forest, traverses six countries, and contains a quarter of the world's remaining tropical forest. The Mongolian forests are shared by nine countries including Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia. Of these countries, DRC comprises the largest area of rainforest, with 107 million hectares, amounting to 60 per cent of Central Africa's lowland forest cover.
There are nearly 10, 000 species of tropical plants in the Congo Basin and 30 per cent are unique to the region and 10,000 animal species. It is inhabited by elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, okapi, leopards, hippos, lions, forest elephants, chimpanzees, bonobos, and lowland and mountain gorillas. 400 other species of mammals, 1,000 species of birds and 700 species of fish can also be found here.
1. Amazon Rainforest :-
The Amazon rainforest is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin comprises 7,000,000 km² of which 5,500,000 km² are covered by the rainforest, making it the largest rainforest in the world. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's lasting rainforests and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world. Amazon rainforest covers some 40 per cent of the South American continent. It is bordered by the Guiana Highlands to the north, the Andes Mountains to the west, the Brazilian central plateau to the south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.
This region includes territory belonging to nine nations and 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories. The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 58.4% of the rainforest, followed by
Peru with 12.8%, Bolivia with 7.7%, Colombia with 7.1%, Venezuela with 6.1%, Guyana with 3.1%, Suriname with 2.5%, French Guyana with 1.4%, and Ecuador with 1%. Four nations have "Amazonas" as the name of one of their first-level administrative regions, and France uses the name "Guiana Amazonian Park" for its rainforest protected area. Amazon rainforest comprises an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species. Amazon rainforest is home to a wide variety of trees, including many species of myrtle, laurel, palm, and acacia, as well as rosewood, Brazil nut, and rubber tree, mahogany and the Amazonian cedar. Major wildlife includes jaguar, manatee, tapir, red deer, capybara and many other types of rodents, and several types of monkeys.
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