This paper is a meta-study of local forest management experiences in developing countries
drawn from a review of 56 case-studies presented in 52 papers. Many case-studies report
positive links between community forestry and forest conservation. In international
organizations and NGOs there is a generally accepted agreement that collective management
(community forestry) will yield success in forest conservation. However, the claim is seldom
rigorously examined. We suggest to have a review of the literature and to propose a first step
to a test of the claim in order to reach a first generalization as to the success of community
forestry in forest conservation. The review of the literature is the first step towards such an
examination, enabling us to make some initial generalizations for further research. In the
present paper, a statistical test is performed and the claim is found wanting. The reviewed
papers are very heterogeneous in their approaches, and it is also suggested that the state still
has a role to play, even when the transfer of management rights to the forest resources is
genuine. Community forestry does not work in a vacuum, and we suggest that a minimum
requirement is probably the presence of a legal structure, which exists in India and Nepal but
not in many other countries. Copyright©2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.