There are two traditional approaches in thinking about the role of communities in land restoration. First is a romantic view that community actions have a benign impact on land, and the second is an unreflective dismissal of the potential of communities in land restoration. Both these views are (theoretically and) practically incorrect. Communities have an interest in restoring land but their actions may not be adequate. Moreover individual members of the community may have incentives to use land in a degrading manner and community norms and their enforcement may become weaker in certain contexts. The need for a context-specific understanding of the role of communities and how other stakeholders (including governments, NGOs and private companies) can strengthen the potential of communities in land restoration is the key theme of this chapter.