Forests play many roles in the livelihoods of adjacent populations. This short paper reviewed the main issues affecting the value of forests to local people: contributions to household food security, differences among different population groups on reliance on forest products, access to markets, shifts from extractive to managed production and the elaborate structure of traditional rules that usually govern forest use. The author commented that while for some people forests provide an important means of coping with contingencies, most value is placed on present local needs rather than on widely diffused benefits.