HIGHLIGHTS Self-organized communities that commercialize Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in the Brazilian Amazon often lack business skills. Public-Private partnerships, as new governance models, formally aim at addressing issues of NTFP suppliers. Not all partners in public-private partnerships have the ability to influence the partnership's interventions, based mainly on their (lack of) expertise. Empowering local communities goes against the economic interests of powerful actors in public-private partnerships. The social acceptance of development cooperation initiatives that exclude representatives of local interests, such as state actors, is questionable. SUMMARY In the Brazilian Amazon, around two million people depend on Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) as their main source of cash income. Given the inherent bottlenecks to the commercialization of such products in the region, such as communities lacking access to credit and business skills, alternative governance models have arisen with the aim of addressing such challenges. This study focused on one partnership between a donor, the German Cooperation Agency, and two private companies, a new trend in global governance under criticism for being donor dominated and disregarding local interests. While this could undermine the legitimacy of such partnerships and compromise the replicability of the model, the achievement of economic empowerment of NTFP-reliant communities would alternatively deem this type of venture desirable and socially acceptable. Therefore, the main goal of this study was to assess whether such configurations are able to economically empower communities in the state of Pará, Brazil. The results showed that this governance model is unable to generate high empowerment, due to conflicts with the interests of the most powerful actor and external factors, which entails a need for an alternative model to achieve this goal in the region. .