Framing community forestry challenges with a broader lens: Case studies from the Brazilian Amazon Reem Hajjar a, * , David G. McGrath b, c , Robert A. Kozak a , John L. Innes a a Department of Forest Resources Management, Faculty of Forestry, Forest Sciences Centre, 2nd Floor, 2045-2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4, Canada b Woods Hole Research Center,149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, MA 02540-1644, USA c Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia (IPAM), Av. Rui Barbosa, 136, Prainha, Santarém e PA 68.005-080, Brazil article info Article history: Received 25 October 2010 Received in revised form 20 March 2011 Accepted 31 March 2011 Available online 6 May 2011 Keywords: Latin America Brazil Community forest management Challenges abstract Community forestry initiatives have been shown to reduce rural poverty while promoting the conservation and sustainable use of forests. However, a number of challenges face communities wanting to initiate or maintain formal, community-based forest management. Through a grounded theory approach, this paper uses three case studies of community forest management models in the eastern Amazon to create a framework showing challenges faced by communities at different phases of formal management. The framework shows that, in the development phase, four root problems (land ownership, knowledge acquisition, community organization, and adequate capital) need to be addressed to obtain legal management permission. With this permission in hand, further challenges to oper- ationalization are presented (deterring illegal loggers, maintaining infrastructure, obtaining necessary managerial skills and accessing markets). The interrelatedness of these challenges emphasizes that all challenges need to be addressed in a holistic manner for communities to maintain a profitable and self-sufficient operation. This contradicts current development approaches that only address part of this framework. The framework proposed here can be used as a starting point for community forestry initiatives in other regions. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Community forestry has been promoted in Latin America and globally by multilateral agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and governments as a way to promote the conservation and sustainable use of tropical forests, consolidate rights over traditional lands and resources, and reduce rural poverty (Bray et al., 2008; Molnar et al., 2008; Pagdee et al., 2006; Scherr et al., 2003). Case studies from around the world show that community forest enterprises can be profitable and deliver many additional socio-cultural and ecological benefits to local communities (Bray, 2004; Bray et al., 2003; Dev et al., 2003; Molnar et al., 2007). Other cases point to shortcomings of current community forest models that have resulted in inequities among community members (Kanel and Kandel, 2004), the marginalization of some communities and traditional cultures (Oyono, 2005; Pokorny, 2009), and failure to achieve the intended development outcomes (Pulhin, 1996). Studies in developing countries have explored the different conditions that have both enabled and prevented successful outcomes in community forestry projects. Authors have identified such challenges as limited access to markets (Scherr et al., 2003), insecure tenure and unrecognized traditional rights (Colchester, 2008; FAO, 2007; Pagdee et al., 2006), adverse policy and regula- tory environments (Molnar et al., 2007), low productivity of community forest enterprises and their financial viability (Humphries et al., 2009; Medina and Pokorny, 2008), inadequate organizational capacity (Porro et al., 2008), and limited access to technical know-how (Louman et al., 2008; Molnar et al., 2007). Community forestry in Brazil developed in response to efforts by NGOs to promote more sustainable forest practices (Amaral and Amaral Neto, 2000). Since the 1990s, community-based timber management projects have been initiated in national forests, extractive reserves, and agricultural colonization areas (Miyasaka Porro and Stone, 2005). After the turn of the century, community forestry proliferated in the Brazilian Amazon; by 2005, over 300 plans for community forestry had been approved or were being elaborated, with over 3000 families involved in managing * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 778 322 7336; fax: þ1 604 822 9106. E-mail addresses: reem.hajjar@gmail.com (R. Hajjar), dmcgrath@ipam.org.br (D.G. McGrath), rob.kozak@ubc.ca (R.A. Kozak), john.innes@ubc.ca (J.L. Innes). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman 0301-4797/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.03.042 Journal of Environmental Management 92 (2011) 2159e2169