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^[1]
• 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^[2]
• 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^[3]
• 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^[4]
• Intensive monitoring site - formal designation used by the United States Forest Service^[4]
• Long-term ecological research site
• Model forest - formal designation used by the Food and Agriculture Organization^[5] and the International Model Forest Network^[6]
• 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 forest
• Research natural area - formal designation used by the United States Forest Service^[4]
• Teaching forest