The carefully planned social forestry programme in Java, Indonesia, included a mandate to give priority to landless and marginal local residents. Four case studies analysed in this paper revealed that the equity mandate had not been implemented, mainly because extension workers were neither trained in nor held accountable for distributing project benefits equitably. The authors suggested that as well as introducing education and incentives for field staff, the selection process for project participants should incorporate widespread publicity, formal registration of applicants and a lottery system to allocate plots, as had already been successful at one site.