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Purpose Community forest enterprises (CFEs) represent a unique business model in the forest sector which has significant potential to foster community development through sustainable utilization of forest resources. However, CFEs are mired in numerous management challenges which restrict their ability to harness this potential. This paper identifies those challenges and, by drawing on the field of social enterprises, offers specific solutions to address them. The paper also enriches the social enterprise literature by highlighting the role of decentralized decision-making and community empowerment in achieving sustainable development. Design/methodology/approach Using qualitative meta-synthesis, the paper first identifies key challenges from the CFE literature. It then draws on the social enterprise literature to distill actionable insights for overcoming those challenges. Findings The study reveals how the social enterprise literature can guide CFEs managers in making decisions related to human resource management, marketing, fundraising, developing conducive organizational cultures and deploying performance measures. Originality/value The paper provides novel and actionable insights into managing and scaling CFEs. It also identifies opportunities for future inter-disciplinary research at the intersection of decentralized management of natural resources and social enterprises that could facilitate progress toward achieving sustainable development.

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