Recent community forestry initiatives in Scotland, UK, have challenged long-established land tenure, legislation and power relations. Presenting three case studies, this paper argued that such initiatives were driven by insiders (local communities), and detailed the ways in which other stakeholders - the state, landowners and NGOs - were involved. The authors broadened the discussion to challenge several widely held views of community-based conservation and development projects, for example that participatory rural appraisal is an innately empowering process. They recommended that we acknowledge that conservation and development initiatives are political processes in which strategic alliances are made - and should continue to be made - among stakeholders with different objectives.