The designation may also refer to the eponymous historical land and ethnocultural region, World War II battle, geomorphological mesoregion, phytogeographic landscape region and syntaxonomical subregion, nature and forest mesoregion, promotional forest complex, Biosphere Reserve, Natura 2000 Special Protection Area, national park, LEADER/CLLD local action group, or a number of local associations.

The geology of Tuchola Forest consists mainly of sandar glaciofluvial deposits of sand sediment, while the soil is predominantly of podzol type.

It also allows for sports, recreation and leisure activities in the forest, unhampered by the restrictions typically imposed in a national park or a nature reserve.

In June 2010 the Tuchola Forest area was designated by UNESCO as a Tuchola Forest Biosphere Reserve, grossly coextensive with the Tuchola Forest (Bory Tucholskie, PLB220009) and the Great Brda Sandar (Wielki Sandr Brdy, PLB220001) Natura 2000 Special Protection Areas combined, encompassing several smaller Natura 2000 Special Areas of Conservation, such as the Brda and Stążka Valley in Tuchola Forest (Dolina Brdy i Stążki w Borach Tucholskich, PLH040023), the Brda and Chocina Valley (Dolina Brdy i Chociny, PLH220058), the Brda Sandar (Sandr Brdy, PLH220026), the Wda Sandar (Sandr Wdy, PLH040017), Mętne (PLH220034), Wdzydze Lakes (Jeziora Wdzydzkie, PLH220057), the Zapceń Refuge (Ostoja Zapceńska, PLH220077), Młosino-Lubnia (PLH040023), or the Church in Śliwice (Kościół w Śliwicach, PLH040034).

In this meaning, the designation refers exclusively to the part of the forest which is inhabited by the Tuchola Borowians (or Borowians) Polish ethnographic group, comprising the area located roughly north-east of Chojnice (Rytel, Gutowiec, Czersk, Łąg), south of Czarna Woda (Osieczna, Osówek), north-west of Świecie (Świekatowo, Lniano, Drzycim), north-east of Sępólno Krajeńskie (Wałdowo, Przepałkowo), stretching south to the suburbs of Bydgoszcz (Koronowo, Pruszcz), encompassing the entire Tuchola County (Tuchola, Raciąż, Bysław, Cekcyn, Śliwice, Legbąd, Lińsk, Gostycyn, Kęsowo, Żalno, Lubiewo).

Beginning from the EU budget perspective 2014-2020 onwards, the law restricted the permitted legal form of LEADER/CLLD local action groups to an association (and not a union of associations), and therefore, the entity lost the official status of LEADER local action group.

The original union of associations continues, however, its activities as a forum of discussion and cooperation in the entire region in- and outside the territory of Tuchola County, in forms such as conferences, training courses or contests, albeit funded from sources other than the LEADER programme, such as the funds received form territorial self-government units or government institutions.

Under German rule, near the village of Grupa, a military exercise area Truppenübungsplatz Gruppe was established, in which medical research was conducted, leading to publication of the name in scientific reports of the early 20th century.

In 1939, during the invasion of Poland at the very beginning of World War II, the major Battle of Tuchola Forest was fought in the area.

Despite having cohabitated peacefully for centuries with their Polish, Kashubian or Jewish neighbours, Kosznajders succumbed to Nazi German propaganda during the increasing hostilities of the German Reich towards Poland in the months preceding the impeding invasion, when a number of them joined the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz, participated in the preparation of Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen, or even played an active role in atrocities against Poles during the genocidal Intelligenzaktion Pommern conducted primarily in October and November 1939, when Germans murdered 335 Poles from Tuchola and Tuchola County in six large massacres known as the Rudzki Most massacre.

[4] Among the victims were teachers, school principals, merchants, craftsmen, farmers, priests, foresters, postmen, railwaymen, policemen and local officials, including mayor of Tuchola Stanisław Saganowski.