These stories present testimonials from Model Forest stakeholders around the world highlighting the International Model Forest Network’s ongoing contribution to the sustainable management and use of natural resources. The Model Forest approach improves landscape management by allowing people to define what sustainable development looks like for them and for their area. Through Model Forests, the people profiled here are making a difference.

• Aboriginal youth learn from their Elders in Canada and Sweden
• Corporate Social Responsibility, Kyoto-Style: An Approach to Collaborative Forest Management
• Ecotourism cuts illegal logging in the Philippines
• Forest certification for small landowners in Canada
• Indigenous communities & landowners cooperate in Bolivia
• Improving women’s economic leadership in Cameroon
• Landowners in Costa Rica creating a plan for a protected area
• Mangrove restoration in the Philippines
• Planting trees to strengthen resilience of Rwandan communities
• Ranchers co-existing with wild plains bison in Canada
• Renewable energy improves livelihoods in Chile
• Reindeer herders, GIS and land-use planning in Sweden

Landscape Approach in Action: Impact Notes

Latest: Impact Notes 10

For almost 30 years, the IMFN has been implementing landscape-level, participatory approaches to the sustainable management of natural resources. This occasional series of Impact Notes offers a graphical summary of recent news and resources from the IMFN.

• IMFN Brochure 2010
• African Model Forest Network Brochure 2010
• Shared solutions to shared challenges: Posters from the 2008 IMFN Global Forum
• Model Forest Profiles 2005

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Oborniki Model Forest

Discover Oborniki Model Forest, in Poland.

This video is available in Polish, with English subtitles.

What is a Model Forest? By Sarah Schmid from Prince Albert Model Forest.

This video has been presented during the 14th session of the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF14), held in New York in May 2019.

Modelový les Česká republika – Czech Republic Model Forest

Discover Czech Republic Model Forest.

This video is available in Czech and English.

Community-linked conservation using Devakad (sacred groves)

Kodagu Model Forest, India

Kodagu District in Karnataka State, South India, part of the Western Ghats region, described as one of the hottest hot spots of biodiversity in the world. This district can also be called a hot spot of sacred forest tradition due to the density and diversity of deities and communities that are part of an informal conservation concept based on Devakad, or sacred groves. This video reviews the current status, threats and conservation initiatives undertaken by different stakeholders to revive this unique conservation concept and highlights the role of the Kodagu Model Forest as a key facilitator in the conservation effort.

Developing Local Economies Through Discovery Tours, Yalova Model Forest, Turkey

Yalova Model Forest, Turkey

The Model Forest is helping local organizations set up a recreational tourist route connecting the beaches of the Sea of Marmara to mountain forest areas. Through the tour, people discover local products such as crafts, ornamental plants and forestry activities as well as natural areas, waterfalls and hot springs.

This video is in Turkish. English is available through closed captioning.

What is a Model Forest?

Model Forests are based on an approach that combines the social, cultural and economic needs of local communities with the long-term sustainability of large landscapes in which forests are an important feature.