Financial Assessment of Community Forest Management

Amazonian communities have the potential for improving their livelihoods by efficiently managing their forest resources. Aiming to support communities, there are different externally-driven initiatives promoting community forest management (CFM) for timber extraction. However, there is limited understanding of the financial viability of those initiatives. This study revealed that families received limited financial benefits from externally-driven CFM initiatives. A critical debate on the real potential of these approaches needs to take place in order to adjust the concepts to the interests and capacities of local communities.