Efforts to secure changes in land tenure that give more rights to forest-dependent people and changes in management practices that benefit local users depend upon transformations in the institutions charged with implementing community forestry. Specifically, forest departments must develop their capacity to decentralize in order to achieve a shift in power and authority to local users. Because formal authority and jurisdiction over public forest lands currently rests with government forest departments, a primary strategy of community forestry programs is to encourage institutional and policy changes within forest departments to increase the scope of local empowerment. A corollary strategy is to strengthen the capacity of NGOs and research institutions to undertake new roles in support of people-oriented forest management.

These strategies rest on the view that each sector of society has a distinctive institutional competence to contribute to community forestry. Local organizations manage day-to-day activities and negotiate with external actors such as government forest departments, businesses, and NGOs. Governments can provide resources and formal authority to local organizations; NGOs help strengthen local organizations and mediate between government and communities; and research organizations generate knowledge and methods needed in planning and in bringing about institutional change. The initiatives supported by the Foundation have sought to orient these distinctive capacities toward community-based management. Support to government agencies has sought to create processes for developing programs and policies that institutionalize people-oriented approaches. NGOs have learned to work with governments to effect policy and structural change, and with communities to provide technical assistance and organizing skills. Support to universities and research institutes has enabled them to develop participatory methods and provide project analysis and documentation. The development of institutional capacity in each of these sectors helps to ensure the long-term viability of community forestry.

One theme that runs through efforts to achieve institutional transformation is the importance of informal and formal relations among government agencies, universities, NGOs, and communities. Collaborations strengthen the institutional base of