In 2014 Decree 14/018 laying down the rules for granting forest concessions to local communities, followed by Ministerial Order 0/25 on the same issue was published in the DRC. This paper aims to analyse the abovementioned legislation with respect to participatory ma nagement of forests. The explicit recognition of the duality of a customary de facto local community forest and a modern legal entity (concession) is an innovation. However, viewed from the perspective of the long-established habits within the country, the question remains whethe r these legal measures can be sufficient for ensuring the sustainable development of these community-held forested areas. Allowing community concessions up to 50,000 ha demonstrated a shift in the government policy away from the industrial timber cultivation model. However, an ar ea this size is much larger than the communities can monitor, particularly in the case of artisanal charcoal or wood exploitation.