Wanderlust World Wanderlust World The taiga, also known as the boreal forest or snow forest, is a massive subarctic evergreen forest encircling the globe north of the 50th parallel. As of 2000, it covered an estimated 11.2 million km² (4.3 million sq mi) of coniferous and mixed wilderness across Europe, Asia, and North America—making it the largest terrestrial ecoregion after the tundra.