Value chain analysis offers a critical lens to understand the actors and activities connecting production to consumption, revealing market access pathways, key influencers and power dynamics, and the distribution of financial margins. Providing a systemic perspective on the interconnectedness of actors and value chain stages, it can also identify feedback loops and foster multistakeholder engagement. Despite established methodologies for agriculture, guidance for assessing and upgrading forest-based value chains (FBVCs) remains limited. This document addresses this gap by providing a framework for conducting FBVC assessments, designing upgrading strategies tailored to their unique characteristics (including multifunctionality, ecosystem services, common property, and long production cycles), and exploring financing mechanisms. Recognizing finance as a key constraint, this guidance builds upon existing methodologies, particularly that of FAO.