The paper reports on the way French forest managers have organized themselves in order to incorporate landscape values in forest management. In the first part, the public forest extension programme, set up in the early seventies is presented. The next parts present the actions recently promoted by the French Department of Agriculture to address the specific problems of the impact of the private forests on the rural landscape. Attention is given to the context and the objectives of the programme, the activities of the national working group including different public officers, and the first results.