The study was carried out with the aim of analyzing and establishing what lessons have been learnt from positive and negative experiences of various initiatives, projects and programmes aiming at sustainable management, use and conservation of rain forests in Sub-Saharan Africa. The lessons learnt from the case studies are articulated around the following four particular items: (1) necessary conditions for implementing SFM and the extent to which current practices satisfy these conditions, (2) factors that inhibit implementation, (3) what needs to be done by different actors and (4) replicability of success stories.