The goal of the current study was to describe the organizational and institutional foundations within traditional rural communities that facilitate implementation of participatory community poverty reduction programs. The focus was on communities within or adjacent to protected areas. A case study research approach was used to assess community mobilization, participation and analytical capacity and also to evaluate community groups and organizations for their competence to be local implementing agents of poverty reduction programs. The research findings showed that inadequate skills and organizational levels limited the ability of communities to fully utilize protected areas as poverty reduction initiatives. Key determinants of community participation were the ability to mobilize and also to undertake detailed analysis of local situations. Community mobilization depended on the relationship between the mobilizing agent and the community, social cohesion and gender. Analytical capacity was influenced mostly by the level of education, prior experience and gender. Interestingly, community groups that had the highest potential to be implementing agents, had strong ties to traditional institutions, suggesting that groups with well recognized power and legitimacy within the community are better positioned to facilitate implementation of community poverty eradication initiatives. A number of indicators of community competence were identified and these were used to develop an analytical framework that can be used as a diagnostic tool for determining community competence. / Protected Areas and Poverty Reduction - Canada-Africa Research and Learning Alliance Project