Summary
The paper builds the case for increased investments in community and indigenous small- and medium-sized forestry enterprises and provision of technical assistance for value-added processing. Experiences and data from Rainforest Alliance's TREES program are used to highlight changes in three community enterprises, from a medium-large indigenous enterprise in Mexico, to a dozen smaller tropical community concessions in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala, to fledging cooperatives in the Rio Plátano Biosphere Reserve in Honduras. Remarkable success in increasing employment opportunities for women, augmenting community incomes, and stimulating investments in community forestry operations is documented. [...] By presenting successes in SME strengthening, the authors hope to motivate community forestry operations to increase investments and use technical assistance to become more competitive. These factors will lead to increased incomes, more sustainable business models and, where secondary processing is developed, more employment for women.