Community-based forest management: legal frameworks in five Congo Basin countries

This table of legal frameworks compares models of community-based forestry in five Congo Basin countries: Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Gabon.

The table looks at key issues around community-based forest management, such as the legal basis for community forests, whether they are granted for a limited amount of time or perpetually, their size and the stages of the process to create a community forest.

The table also includes the key weaknesses of each legal framework to reveal some of the potential barriers to developing successful community forestry in the region, such as complexity and length of procedures to obtain community forests and the need to strengthen community capacity for managing forests.