# List of types of formally designated forests

This is a list of types of formally designated forests, as institutionalized around the world. It is organized in three sublists: by forest ownership, protection status, and designated use.

## By ownership

* Church forests of Ethiopia - protected sacred forests around rural churches
* Community forest
** Community forests in England
* County forest
* Crown land
* Municipal forest
* National forest
** National forest (Brazil) - a type of sustainable use protected area
** The National Forest (England) - a government-supported, "environmental project in central England"
** National forest (France) - a forest that is owned by the French state, originating with the Edict of Moulins of 1566
** National forest (United States) - classification of Federal lands in the United States
* National reserve - legal designation in the United States, beginning in 1978
* Private forest
** Corporate forest
** Private nonindustrial forest land
** Private landowner assistance program - a class of U.S. government assistance program for maintaining, developing, improving and protecting wildlife
** Private reserve
*** Private forest reserve
**** Private timber reserve (Tasmania)
*** Private nature reserve
* Provincial forest - administered or protected by an agency of a province; varies by jurisdiction
** Provincial forests (Manitoba)
* Royal forest - an area of land with varying meanings; not necessarily densely wooded
* State forest - administered or protected by an agency of a state; varies by jurisdiction
* Tribal forest - owned, controlled, and/or utilized by a (formally recognized) Indigenous or tribal group

## By protection status

* Ancient woodland - formal designation used in the United Kingdom
** Ancient semi-natural woodland (ASNW) - composed of native tree species not obviously planted
* Bannwald - a protected forest area in parts of Germany and Austria
* Biosphere reserve - as designated by UNESCO
* Biological reserve
* Conservation reserve - used in the United States' Conservation Reserve Program
* Forest circle - an administrative area including protected or resource-managed forests, used in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
* Forest division - a non-overlapping subdivision of a forest circle, used in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
* Forest park (The Gambia), as in Dobo Forest Park, Faba Forest Park, Finto Manereg Forest Park, etc.
* Forest preserve, formal dedication for state-owned lands within the constitutionally designated Adirondack and Catskill Parks of the U.S. state of New York, required to be kept forever wild.
* Forest protected area - formal designation of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the World Commission on Protected Areas
* Forest range - a non-overlapping subdivision of a forest division, used in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
* Forest reserve or preserve
** Recreational forest reserve, e.g. the Recreational Forest Reserve of Fontinhas, Azores
* High-biodiversity wilderness area - an International Union for Conservation of Nature classification
* High conservation value area - developed by the Forest Stewardship Council as a means of defining regions with a specific environmental, socioeconomic, biodiversity or landscape value for use within forestry management certification systems
* High conservation value forest - a FSC designation for forests meeting criteria specified in its "Principles and Criteria of Forest Stewardship"
* Intact forest landscape - NGO-developed term used in forest monitoring
* Old-growth forest - in Australia, formal protection category in the Regional Forest Agreement
* Private natural heritage reserve - designation used in Brazil
* Protected forest - used in Cambodia and India
* Protected landscape - used in the Czech Republic
* Reserve forest - used to designate protected forest areas in British India; used today in Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan and Pakistan to refer to forests accorded a special degree of protection
** Reserved forests and protected forests of India
** Protected and reserved forests of Pakistan
* Sacred grove - protected in Ghana, Nigeria and possibly elsewhere
** Sacred groves of India
* Schonwald, a type of formally protected forest in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, in which economic usage of the forest is permitted under certain restrictions
* Wild forest, formal designation within the New York Forest Preserve
* Wilderness forest
* Wildlife forest
* Wildlife management area
* Wildlife reserve
** Wildlife sanctuaries of India
* World Heritage Forest - formally recognized for special biophysical or cultural significance; administered by UNESCO

## By designated use

* Dehesa - lands utilizing a particular agrosylvopastoral system in Spain and Portugal
* Demonstration forest
* Experimental forest - formal designation used by the United States Forest Service
* Intensive monitoring site - formal designation used by the United States Forest Service
* Long-term ecological research site
* Model forest - formal designation used by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Model Forest Network
* Private nonindustrial forest land - small, family owned, and timber-producing forest lands
* Production forest
* Protection forest - forests that mitigate or prevent the impact of a natural hazard; designation in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland (Schutzwald) and elsewhere in Europe, particularly in mountainous areas (e.g. as a protection against avalanches)
* Research natural area - formal designation used by the United States Forest Service
* Teaching forest