Wild animals, from ants to elephants, represent a natural resource of great significance for most forest-dwelling communities, as well as for those living in many other rural contexts. In spite of this, most development projects ignore their role in subsistence as well as non-subsistence rural economies. The purpose of this Community Forestry Note is to fill the vacuum left by the fact that in community forestry, as well as in agroforestry and other development activities, the contribution of wildlife to rural livelihoods has been greatly undervalued. The intent is to raise wild animals to their rightful value in the community forestry development process, and to provide an input for designing projects in ways that better fit the reality of most rural people in the tropics.