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The GLF hosted Forests, People, Planet at the IMFN Global Forum. Learn more here.
“Indigenous people and forest sustainable land management owners have something in common in our hearts,” said Richard Lalande, also known as Chief Dream Hunter, a traditional chief of the Tay River Algonquian Indigenous Peoples.
“We have one goal, and that’s the goal and purpose of leaving this beautiful Mother Earth a better place than we found it. I think that is our shared duty and responsibility.”
This sentiment brought tears to the eyes of many who gathered for the opening session of the International Model Forest Network (IMFN) Global Forum 2025 in Kemptville, Ontario, Canada, last week.
The event gathered nearly 200 participants to discuss forest best practices, share successes and challenges from their landscapes and bolster commitments to restoration, conservation and sustainable land management.
Forests cover 31 percent of the world’s land area – but they’re being heavily deforested and degraded due to increasing wildfires, encroaching agriculture, industrialization and other activities.
This means there is an urgent need to restore our world’s forests. But to really create change at a global level, we must plant our feet on local soil when it comes to reversing land degradation, bolstering biodiversity, implementing fire management, safeguarding watersheds and preserving cultures and economies.
The IMFN is the world’s largest network dedicated to landscape-level governance. It serves as a convener for forest practitioners around the world, acting as a bridge to connect local circumstances with global restoration and conservation goals.
This year’s Global Forum gathered representatives from 44 countries across Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, Latin America and the Mediterranean.
Conversations ranged from forest practitioner successes and challenges to addressing new tools, from AI satellite monitoring to best practices in fire management.
At the heart of every conversation was the voices of those who live, work and depend on forests – including members of the Model Forest network and the partners that support them.
“When people ask me, I tell them a Model Forest is more about people than it is about trees.”
Brian Barkley smiled as he leaned forward in his seat on our bus.
“I ask them back, ‘What does your forest need to be?’”
Barkley is the first general manager of the Eastern Ontario Model Forest, which covers an area of over 75,000 hectares of certified forest. Located close to the Canadian capital, Ottawa, it also hosted this year’s IMFN Global Forum.
As part of the forum, we spent a field day exploring some of the various ecosystems that make up the area. This included a rare alvar ecosystem, where we walked along exposed limestone as Barkley pointed out specialty plants such as pussytoes (Antennaria), prairie smoke (Geum triflorum) and blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) – some of which First Nations peoples use as medicines.
Tim Trustham, from Quinte Conservation, a local nonprofit environmental protection agency, led us to several other spots, including the edge of a type of wetland called a calcareous fen, where we saw unique grasses and plants growing from a bed of white clay.
The fen-turned-lake is privately owned, but Trustham explained that their conservation group builds relationships with private landowners to promote sustainable land management and good forest practices.
“A Model Forest is a community of practice,” said Barkley.
This is one example of how a Model Forest functions as a network of landowners and conservationists – making a long-term commitment to sustainably manage a forested area to support local livelihoods, biodiversity, soil health and many other forest factors.
Model Forests are ‘living laboratories’ – spaces where people can experiment with governance and policy that creates a thriving space for all species who live there, people, animals and plants alike.
I felt this sense of being in a ‘lab’ of sorts when we made a stop at Beaver Lake, where we learned that the Quinte Conservation group doesn’t just own the lake’s dam to regulate the lake’s water levels: they also add felled trees and rocks around the lake’s edges to invite more diversity.
“We need to disturb the land to drive diversity,” said Trustham.
Much of what is now the Eastern Ontario Model Forest was clear-cut by settlers back in the 1780s. Now, landowners and organizations like the Eastern Ontario Model Forest, the Ontario Woodlot Association and private groups like the Quinte Conservation group work to help their forests thrive.
A Model Forest isn’t about roping off land and saying “stay out.” They’re expansive areas that can be home to various ecosystems, towns full of people, and industries – all of which are mindfully managed for the health of forests and people.
The Eastern Ontario Model Forest is one of more than 60 Model Forests worldwide. During the IMFN Global Forum, 85 representatives from Model Forests gathered to share and collaborate on ways to continue strengthening their work across forests.
Here are some highlights of what we learned.
Throughout the event, representatives from every region of the network shared their successes, challenges and innovations. Indigenous voices, women, youth and elders were also heard, bringing different lived experiences and perspectives to roundtable conversations.
The role of women in restoration was key during the week, with several Canadian women sharing the successes of Women in Wood, a supportive community that advocates for more women in forestry.
But not every conversation on gender was easy.
“We have observed that women possess a wealth of knowledge about the territory and even have a more holistic view of the land,” said María Steffanny Bashi Pizarro of the Pichanaki Model Forest in Peru.
“Women embrace knowledge and practices associated not only with production and crops that generate income, but also with food production, the conservation of medicinal plants and even the recovery of areas for the well-being of families and communities.
“Unfortunately, these activities are not always valued, listened to or included in initiatives. I think we are losing great potential there.”
In the Pichanaki Model Forest, communities are trained in gender equality and equity, ensuring more women can find livelihood opportunities in forestry, but as many women emphasized, there is a lot of work ahead to reach true equality.
On a hopeful note, women made up slightly more than half of all attendees at the Global Forum.
A session dedicated to the challenges and importance of women in forest protection, conservation and general advocacy brought tears, spirit and seeds of hope to keep pushing for further representation in spaces such as this one.
Another central topic was the importance of governance within Model Forests and how to adapt to the climate crisis, forest fires and global socioeconomic and political shifts, including the loss of development aid.
“I firmly believe that without governance, we won’t advance as territories,” said Natalia Ruiz-Guevara, a forest engineer, research analyst for the World Resources Institute and part of the regional Latin American Model Forest Network.
“I feel like we’re still in the early stages, generally speaking. There are many landscapes or territories that have been working on [landscape governance] for 30, 40, or 50 years, but this seems short when we think of Indigenous governance – then we’re talking about millennia.
“Governance is probably a concept that was born with humanity, and we’re just now reconnecting with it.”
Fire management is another hot topic among forest practitioners, one that engaged many in conversations around new tools and resources for monitoring.
In Thailand’s Ngao Model Forest, communities are self-organizing fire breaks to stop the spread of wildfires, even without government funding.
Prescribing fires is another way some countries like Spain, Italy and Canada clear land and keep wildfires from growing out of control.
Along with governance, many spoke on the importance of finding ways to bolster local economies.
In Poland’s Oborniki Model Forest, people are promoting geocaching as a form of engaging and sustainable tourism.
In Spain’s Palencia Model Forest, art is used to boost ecotourism and address depopulation.
“Sharing knowledge is the key,” said John Pineau, executive director of the Ontario Woodlot Association.
“Everyone says we have different forest ecosystems, different species, different everything, but there are far more similarities and commonalities that we can take from each other and apply and adapt.”
“Model Forests are uniquely positioned,” said Richard Verbisky, head of the IMFN Secretariat. “They are first and foremost an organization at the landscape level, but they are also tied, nationally, sub-nationally and internationally, to policies.”
“To be able to come to an event like this and make these linkages between things being done at the landscape level and make some national or international impacts – I think that is pretty special.”
With cuts to international development aid, conversations are angling toward how Model Forests and other community-led environmental work can be self-sustaining to bolster local economies and ensure long-lasting restoration to contribute to global goals.
“We need to try to prop up domestic investments into forestry and forest management,” said Peter Minang, director of Africa for CIFOR-ICRAF. “To do that, we need to adopt an approach that informs governments of the returns on investments in forestry.”
Conversations on self-sustaining restoration work and adapting to changes in international funding will continue at GLF Africa 2025 later this month.
“Funding must be sustainable and self-sustaining, and it must be paired with solid governance,” said Giuliana Torta, principal administrator for the European Commission on International Adaptation.
Furthermore, to create long-term positive change, many advocated for embracing new technologies and innovation to support land stewardship.
“People need training to use new technologies in their day-to-day activities so communities can use these tools at large rather than delegating this to specialists,” said Pineau.
“Technology is not really good unless it can be used by people.”
Because it is people like forest practitioners and rural communities, such as those who make up the IMFN, who are at the heart of restoration, conservation and sustainable forest management.
Lara Steil, a forestry officer for the Global Fire Management Hub of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said it well:
“If we want to promote global change, we need to promote local changes.”
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