Change in forest management is facilitated through communication between stakeholders who encourage, advise, inform, warn, guide, exhort, and educate each other. Traditionally in many countries government extension officers have advised and instructed forest owners. ‘Advice’ in these cases is the link between policy (government and others’ desired outcomes) and (land managers’) practice. While there are some parallels with agricultural extension, the situation with forestry is more diverse and complex, partly because a majority of forest owners have no formal background or education in forestry. We propose that the term ‘forest advisory system’ can be applied to a concept which takes a systemic approach to analysing the stakeholders and their interactions, in forestry advice. The ‘forest advisory system’ (FAS) is more than the conventional extension model, and involves a range of private, public and NGO stakeholders who may or may not be collaborating with each other. Our paper is descriptive and analytical, based on a development of three organising ideas: (1) knowledge and information as a system; (2) the distinction between knowledge transfer and knowledge exchange; (3) choice of instruments in environmental policy (Böcher, 2012). The paper addresses three questions: How FAS are evolving and what affects that? Will FAS be more similar in future between regions and if so why? Will the need for type of advice change in future?