The last few decades have been dominated by policy and practice narratives which suggest that active and engaged citizens or communities with effective agency can make important contributions to the creation, management and protection of natural resources such as forests. Socio-ecological system perspectives also conceptualise governance as a situation where ‘the divide between those governing and those being governed’ is eliminated, and see a shift in conventional governance practice to adaptive governance as essential if forests are to cope with the Anthropocene. Adaptive governance relies on social innovation – the ability for citizens, communities and other stakeholders to engage in collective experimentation, learning and risk management, and finding governance solutions that focus on the social and ecological benefits contributing to resilience and sustainability of socio-ecological systems. Social innovation in community forestry in the UK shows combinations of practice that manage differing combinations of resources, forest functions and uses, and organisational arrangements that have the best potential for sustainability. Community self-mobilisation, and engagement with a constellation of actors, other community groups and networks, large organisations and the state, allows for local practices and ideas to be incorporated within existing institutions and to transform and develop in response to changing socio-ecological conditions.