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Community-based enterprises are of interest to commons researchers because they offer a means to study how local institutions respond to opportunities, develop networks, new skills and knowledge, and evolve. Nevertheless, the relationship between commons and community-based enterprises has received little attention, with a few exceptions (Bray et al. 2005; Berkes and Davidson-Hunt 2007). Therefore, we decided to organize a conference session and explore this relationship in more detail. We invited a diverse array of scholars and practitioners active with indigenous enterprises, community development, community forestry, ecotourism and conservation-development projects. This Special Issue includes peer-reviewed and edited versions of seven of the papers (plus two additional invited papers) presented at the two panels on “Innovating through commons use: community-based enterprises”, at the 12th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC 2008) in Cheltenham, England.