To maintain healthy and productive forests, governments must build partnerships with the people who live in and from the forest and who have direct- stake in strategies to manage forest resources sustainably. Providing a rationale and a blueprint for such partnerships is Balancing Acts: Community-Based Forest Management and National Law in Asia and the Pacific by WRI Senior Associates Owen J. Lynch and Kirk Talbott, with assistance from Marshall S. Berdan and collaborating colleagues in the seven case-study countries. Capping five years of research on how national and state laws influence the fate of forests and forest-dwelling peoples, this report identifies laws and policies that could foster collaboration between governments and forest-dependent communities. Balancing Acts surveys the historical antecedents and contemporary status of national laws and policies affecting forests and forest-dwellers in India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Papua New Guinea. Reference: Balancing Acts: Community-based Forest Management and National Law in Asia and the Pacific