Internationally, the term community forestry simply means managing a collection of trees by a group of people who have the same goal. In general, community forestry is used in the world of forestry with the same understanding with social forestry (social forestry), while on the other hand is distinguished from farm forestry term that refers to the management of trees by individual land managers.
Community forestry to include forest management practices that have been aged hundreds of years until the schemes are relatively new to developing innovative, management of forest plantations and natural forests (including shrub land), and all kinds of methods of organizing groups of forest managers.
Sonja Vermeulen (2001) give a sense of community forestry from the perception of the parties is
The definition of government
Community forestry is forestry systems that are designed and implemented to meet the social needs, household and local environment and to develop the local economy. (White Paper on Sustainable Forest Development, Government of South Africa).
Definition of researchers
Community forestry based on local control over, and the utilization of benefits from, the local forest resources. That the benefits are not simply monetary, nor merely from timber production, but can vary according to the amount of benefit that can be obtained from forest ecosystems, including cultural values, spiritual, social, health, ecological, recreational, aesthetic and economic. (Curran and M'Gonigle 1997, in the Forests and Communities website, http://www.forestsandcommunities.org / ecosystem.html).