Taxation systems for publicly-owned forests should be founded on a government's constitutional right of radical tenure, simultaneously recognising the rights of forest-dependent stakeholders to share benefits and responsibilities. Complex taxes may be historically explicable but are open to corrupt diversions. A systems approach may be essential for benefit sharing to really reach geographically or institutionally remote beneficiaries. The purpose of each tax should be justified and communicated to tax payers, including through participatory development of tax laws. Transparency in justification and implementation of forest taxes helps to diminish corruption through replacement of administrative discretion by rule-based decision making. Strategists should be more aware of the links between criminality in various sectors.