Effective management of natural resources can be constrained or facilitated by their institutional frameworks, and policy to practice transfer challenges. The questions at the centre of this paper are: to what extent does implementation of forest interventions follow their policies, and what challenges exist for policy to practice transfers? In Ghana, the policy of the Social Responsibility Agreement (SRA) devolves decisionmaking powers to local authorities to represent the interest of communities in benefit share accruing from timber harvesting. By following two concluded SRAs in western Ghana through ethnography and semi-structured interviews, this paper explores the extent the SRA negotiation process emulated the policy, and with what challenges and outcomes. Lessons are drawn to inform practitioners, policy makers or researchers who aim to strengthen the policy implementation process.