 Forests are and will remain one of the major sources of livelihoods to the majority of the people to maximise the benefits of forests and trees and to accelerate the restoration of the huge chunks of forests degraded over the past several decades there is need for greater inclusion and participation of the forest dependent communities in the management of the forests this probably explains why over the past 25 years there is growing commitment in many countries the world over to set up laws and policies to give communities more control and ownership over forests Uganda is actively pursuing the sustainable development agenda but like in many patriarchal societies the women still need the consent of their husbands to plant and own forests it is on this premise that the Centre for International Forestry Research with funds from the Austrian Development Agency partnered with Macquarie University, the Association of Uganda Professional Women in Agriculture and Environment and the local communities to pilot a five-year gender, tenure and community forestry project the purpose was to explore ways in which to increase the participation of women in the management of forests and forestry resources Macquarie University's School of Forestry, Environment and Geographical Sciences coordinated the project in Uganda and identified the key factors constraining women's rights and participation in decision making and benefits in the management of forestry resources the Association of Uganda Professional Women in Agriculture and Environment, AUPE, introduced the adaptive collaborative management strategy ACM to encourage the community members to self-reflectively identify the problems which affect them take collective and collaborative actions to resolve them, monitor and reflect on the outcomes participate fully in the discussions and leadership of their respective groups identify and tap into linkages with external actors and to learn from their choices AUPE supported them to use the participatory rural appraisal the responses from all the groups were then merged into one comprehensive vision statement and a five-year community action plan trained ACM facilitators guided the process from the start, encouraging participation, monitoring, organizing meetings, prompting discussions and catalyzing linkages the women have been able to build their communication skills to support the much needed joint learning among participants as well as building their negotiation skills to resolve the conflict in their midst using peaceful means it also came out prominently that involving the male partners was necessary so that they can be more supportive of their spouses to own the trees, forests and forestry products and finally the communities have been able to create linkages to get services from actors external to the group this results therefore suggests that in ACM lies the answers to empower women to get their tenure rights so that they can participate in decision making and the overall management of forestry resources