Key messages

• Decision-making initiatives led solely by external forest stakeholders (organizing local community stakeholders) can make the meaningful involvement of women and marginalized groups difficult, if not impossible.
• Self-initiated community groups, however, are able to leverage authentic collaborative engagements, empowering women to speak up when decisions are being made.
• To ensure effective participation, women need to be empowered to become agents of change through taking on, both formally and informally, strategic roles in community groups making forest-related decisions.
• Forest certification requires new approaches to ensure the effective participation of all stakeholders; this includes promoting the use of gender quotas as a transitional mechanism, not as an end-goal; the development of local gender-sensitive leadership pathways; and taking a human rights approach to participation.