Forest community constructs police station, clinic, city hall from logging revenues

The 2009 Community Rights Law gave communities the right to control, protect, and manage forests. But their lack of finance led many communities to give their forests over to commercial operators to harvest timber. These commercial contracts have faced challenges such as non-compliance and illegal logging by companies on one hand, and misappropriation and mismanagement of revenues by some community leaders on the other hand. Despite these challenges, some communities are standing tall to ensure revenues received from companies are used to develop their communities.