This publication summarises the findings of a multi-disciplinary team that studied three different recently completed GTZ community-based forest management projects in Bhutan, India, and Nepal. The projects represented different approaches to forest resource management with different institutional arrangements and policy orientation. The team examined how the projects have linked people, institutions, sectors, disciplines, activities, and programmes together in a dynamic system of community forest resource management. The results indicate that using appropriate technical and financial support it is possible to achieve the twin goals of conservation of forests and reduction of poverty. The factors that led to successful innovations, and those that slowed progress, are described, and good practices in community-based natural resource management are documented many of them technological innovations that pave the way for a shift from mere subsistence to a more commercial use of forest products. The publication will be of interest to all those concerned with community-based approaches to natural resource management.