The urgent need to limit anthropogeniccarbon emissions has led to a global initiative to ReduceEmissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+).But designing national architectures for REDD+ thatintegrate local actions on forests with national-leveloutcomes and do so effectively, efficiently, and equitablycontinues to be challenging. One option to facilitate thedesign and implementation of REDD+ is to learn from theexperience of other programs that have historically beensuccessful in achieving sustainable tropical forestmanagement, such as community forest management (CFM).Lessons about the factors that contribute to CFM successwill be useful in designing REDD+ programs. REDD+ may alsobenefit from harnessing the capital developed by CFM. Ofcourse, REDD+ and CFM represent both opportunities andchallenges for each other. Identifying how CFM cancontribute to REDD+ goals, and the potential benefits andrisks in using CFM to achieve REDD+ implementation requirescareful analysis of available evidence because the two setsof interventions do not have a complete overlap in terms oftheir objectives and mechanisms.