The National Strategy for Community Forestry aims at contributing to achieving several development goals: empowerment of local communities, sustainable forest management, good governance and poverty alleviation.

The strategy establishes the following principles : 1) to balance conservation with sustainable utilisation; 2) to support decentralisation  through empowerment of local communities to manage their local forests;3) to improve governance of Community Forests to ensure the improvement of forest conditions and the equitable distribution of benefits; 4) to generate income for local communities through commercial harvesting of timber; 5) to contribute to poverty reduction, etc. 

The long term vision set in the document is for a future that is sustainable, makes a significant contribution to rural livelihoods and is resilient to climate change.