• Communities in forest areas can be trained to map and inventory forests although they may need technical support for some tasks. • The cost of community carbon monitoring is likely to be much less than for professional surveys and accuracy is relatively good. The degree of precision depends on the size of the sample. There is a tradeoff between the cost of increasing the sample size and the amount of carbon that communities could claim. • Entrusting forest inventory work to communities could have other advantages for national REDD+ programmes, such as transparency and recognition of the value of community forest management in providing carbon services.