Forests provide a long list of benefits to people. Sustainable use of forests contributes to the well-being of local communities. It helps them tackle challenges and address the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Sustainability in forest use is enhanced by regulations and improved by market incentives and policy instruments. These instruments, however, may overlook the realities of forest-dependent communities. In the article we provide some evidence that the promotion of social innovation can assist in addressing sustainability by complementing other policy instruments. Aiming at improving human well-being, social innovation can create new responses to pressing social demands. It necessarily relies on the voluntary engagement of civil society actors and is usually described as focusing attention on ideas and solutions that create social values, as well as the processes through which they are generated.
