The Forum will work with a variety of partnerships, formal and informal, within and outside the continent, and with forestry and non-forestry bodies. It is highly desirable that the Forum partners with, inter alia:

• African Development Bank (ADB)
• Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO)
• African Forestry and Wildlife Commission (AFWC)
• African Forest Research Network (AFORNET) at the African Academy of Sciences (AAS)
• United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF)
• African Union (AU)
• New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)
• United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)
• World Conservation Union (IUCN)- Eastern Africa Regional Office
• Forest Stewardship Council-African Regional Office
• Commision des Forêts d’ Afrique Centrale (COMIFAC) 
• African forestry research, education and development institutions and networks; and others, who partnered with  the Sustainable Forest Management in Africa (SFMII) Project, a project that took  the initiative to establish the Forum.