<p>Climate change is a pressing global concern, with temperatures rising by about 0.2 ℃ per decade. In Nepal, this increases vulnerability to disasters like landslides, floods, droughts, and forest fires, damaging forests, agriculture, and water resources. Despite forests storing over 60% of terrestrial carbon and serving as effective tools in mitigating climate change, the role of community forests in Nepal’s climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts remains underexplored. This study was conducted in Galtar community forest, Bardibas-1, Mahottari, Nepal, to assess climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, evaluate forest carbon storage capacity, and identify community challenges and opportunities in utilizing forests for climate action. A mixed-methods approach was employed for data collection, including a carbon stock inventory across 11 sample plots, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), and a questionnaire survey of 244 households to evaluate community forest management and its role in climate change adaptation and mitigation. The carbon stock density of the forest was found to be 60 t/ha. Community forest is vital in combating climate change, offering diverse benefits as highlighted by FGDs and questionnaire surveys. The community people tackle climate change through afforestation, renewable energy adoption, climate-smart agriculture, sustainable harvesting, fire management, awareness campaigns, and other silvicultural practices. While the community forest faces challenges such as sustainable resource management, financial constraints, illegal logging, and environmental issues, it also provides opportunities including livelihoods, carbon storage, employment, ecosystem services, and habitat preservation, with ecosystem services being the most significant.</p>