Purpose of Review <p>The Global South holds a significant share of the world’s private forests, which are increasingly recognized for their role in meeting climate and biodiversity goals. This is the first systematic review of published research on private forests in the Global South, providing an overview of existing literature. Based on an analysis of 655 peer-reviewed papers published between 1997 and 2024, we identify trends and gaps in this body of research and suggest directions for future studies.</p> Recent Findings <p>Countries with more forest cover and a higher number of forestry research institutions tend to produce more studies on private forests within their borders. Only 56 of 137 countries in the Global South are listed as study sites for private forest research, mainly in Latin America and Asia. Although Africa has extensive forests, research efforts usually focus on government-managed forests and often overlook private forestry issues. In Latin America, most studies emphasize biophysical aspects, biodiversity, and conservation, while policy discussions tend to focus on ecosystem service incentives. In Asia, studies tend to prioritize forest economy, business, property rights, and land tenure over biodiversity and biophysical factors.</p> Summary <p>Research on private forests over the past three decades has revealed regional and thematic bias, which narrows our overall understanding of how incentives, property rights, and political institutions together shape forest outcomes. To fill these gaps, future studies should focus on data-scarce areas, examine governance tensions between government control and private incentives, and encourage institutional and technological innovations that enhance private forest management.</p>