In recent years the key role that communities play in designing and implementing local development initiatives has been emphasised by many international research and development agencies. Programmes to achieve the Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction and food security now routinely rely on communities to be the best judges of their own needs. But the importance of community action has always been central to the implementation of agroforestry research.

Many agroforestry-based solutions have most impact at the community level – such as the development of community-owned nurseries to provide planting material and extension advice, or the role of Landcare groups in helping communities to manage their own natural resources. The role of trees in soil conservation or in protecting community water supplies is most often felt at the community level.

Communities provide the interface between central governments and individual families, and in recent years pressure from international organisations has encouraged more governments to decentralise services in the belief that the closer these get to the communities who will benefit from them, the more efficient and accountable they will be. But that is not always the case.

Through its long involvement in community action research and development, the World Agroforestry Centre has shown which development initiatives local communities are best able to implement, and what conditions need to prevail for this implementation to be most successful.

In collaboration with the African Highlands Initiative (AHI), the World Agroforestry Centre is undertaking action research to support upland communities in eastern Africa who are seeking to manage their natural resources more effectively. In southern Africa, Centre scientists are working with Local Change Teams to rapidly scale up effective agroforestry technologies. The lessons learned from the Centre’s involvement in Landcare in The Philippines are also being successfully transferred to similar initiatives elsewhere in southeast Asia and in Africa.

This section focuses on two very different types of community development based around agroforestry innovations. The cultivation of bamboo – an underutilised native product of Africa is being revitalised through the introduction of improved varieties and technologies from Asia. Exciting community development initiatives are now in progress in Kenya. A key factor in community development is also the role of skilled individuals, and the Centre has been a key player in revitalising agricultural education in Africa to make it more appropriate to the social conditions that apply in local communities. These are examples from the continuum of research for community development activities that the Centre has long championed.